【kpow cat skiing at fortress mountain】Are Insiders Selling Glanbia plc (ISE:GL9) Stock?

We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. On the other hand,kpow cat skiing at fortress mountain we’d be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in

Glanbia plc

(

ISE:GL9

).

What Is Insider Selling?

It’s quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.

We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Colombia University

study

found that ‘insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own company’s stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers’.

View our latest analysis for Glanbia

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Glanbia

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by Vice Chairman Patrick Murphy for €387k worth of shares, at about €17.84 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of €16.40. They might be selling for a variety of reasons, but it’s hard to argue this is a bullish sign. Arguably, insider selling at around current prices should give us reason to reflect on whether the stock is fully valued at the moment.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 50.27k shares worth €715k. On the other hand they divested 45.03k shares, for €719k. In total, Glanbia insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. They sold for an average price of about €15.96. It’s not too encouraging to see that insiders have sold at below the current price. Of course, the sales could be motivated for a multitude of reasons, so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. You can see the insider transactions over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

ISE:GL9 Insider Trading January 1st 19

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this

free

list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership of Glanbia

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it’s a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Glanbia insiders own about €15m worth of shares (which is 0.3% of the company). I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.

Story continues

So What Does This Data Suggest About Glanbia Insiders?

There haven’t been any insider transactions in the last three months — that doesn’t mean much. We don’t take much encouragement from the transactions by Glanbia insiders. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at this

FREE

report showing analyst forecasts for Glanbia

.

But note:

Glanbia may not be the best stock to buy

. So take a peek at this

free

list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at

[email protected]

.

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