It is usually uneventful when a single insider buys stock. However, When quite a few insiders buy shares, as it happened in STEP Energy Services Ltd.'s (TSE:STEP) case, it's fantastic news for 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.

Check out our latest analysis for STEP Energy Services

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At STEP Energy Services

The Chief Operating Officer, Rory Thompson, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for CA$125k worth of shares at a price of CA$4.22 each. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even slightly below the current price of CA$4.26. 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. Please do note, however, that sellers may have a variety of reasons for selling, so we don't know for sure what they think of the stock price. We note that the biggest single sale was only 32% of Rory Thompson's holding.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid CA$255k for 67.79k shares. But insiders sold 37.86k shares worth CA$161k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by STEP Energy Services insiders. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. If investing in lesser known companies is your style, you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insiders At STEP Energy Services Have Bought Stock Recently

We saw some STEP Energy Services insider buying shares in the last three months. They bought CA$149k worth in that time. However, Chief Operating Officer Rory Thompson netted CA$125k for sales. It is nice to see that insiders have bought, but the quantum isn't large enough to get us excited.

Insider Ownership Of STEP Energy Services

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Based on our data, STEP Energy Services insiders have about 1.1% of the stock, worth approximately CA$3.3m. We consider this fairly low insider ownership.