From what we can see, insiders were net buyers in Ascent Industries Co.'s (NASDAQ:ACNT ) during the past 12 months. That is, insiders acquired the stock in greater numbers than they sold it.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

View our latest analysis for Ascent Industries

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Ascent Industries

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by President & CEO J. Kitchen for US$79k worth of shares, at about US$10.00 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price, which is US$10.01. Of course they may have changed their mind. But this suggests they are optimistic. While we always like to see insider buying, it's less meaningful if the purchases were made at much lower prices, as the opportunity they saw may have passed. Happily, the Ascent Industries insider decided to buy shares at close to current prices. The only individual insider to buy over the last year was J. Kitchen.

J. Kitchen purchased 12.43k shares over the year. The average price per share was US$10.11. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership Of Ascent Industries

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Our data indicates that Ascent Industries insiders own about US$5.7m worth of shares (which is 5.5% of the company). Whilst better than nothing, we're not overly impressed by these holdings.

So What Do The Ascent Industries Insider Transactions Indicate?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. But on the other hand, the company made a loss during the last year, which makes us a little cautious. On this analysis the only slight negative we see is the fairly low (overall) insider ownership; their transactions suggest that they are quite positive on Ascent Industries stock. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. At Simply Wall St, we found 1 warning sign for Ascent Industries that deserve your attention before buying any shares.