Usually, when one insider buys stock, it might not be a monumental event. But when multiple insiders are buying like they did in the case of Afentra plc (LON:AET), that sends out a positive message to the company's shareholders.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we do think it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing.

View our latest analysis for Afentra

Afentra Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the COO & Executive Director, Ian Cloke, for UK￡377k worth of shares, at about UK￡0.32 per share. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of UK￡0.45, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. While insider selling is not a positive sign, we can't be sure if it does mean insiders think the shares are fully valued, so it's only a weak sign. We note that the biggest single sale was only 36% of Ian Cloke's holding. Ian Cloke was the only individual insider to sell over the last year. Notably Ian Cloke was also the biggest buyer, having purchased UK￡478k worth of shares.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid UK￡478k for 1.51m shares. On the other hand they divested 1.26m shares, for UK￡397k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Afentra insiders. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

Afentra is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Insider Ownership

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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 38% of Afentra shares, worth about UK￡38m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Do The Afentra Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Afentra insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Insiders own shares in Afentra and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Afentra. Be aware that Afentra is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is potentially serious...