It is usually uneventful when a single insider buys stock. However, When quite a few insiders buy shares, as it happened in AsiaBaseMetals Inc.'s (CVE:ABZ) case, it's fantastic news for shareholders.
While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.
View our latest analysis for AsiaBaseMetals
AsiaBaseMetals Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the CFO & Director, Terrylene Penstock, for CA$260k worth of shares, at about CA$0.16 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is CA$0.10. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Terrylene Penstock.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 3.43m shares for CA$413k. On the other hand they divested 3.18m shares, for CA$386k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by AsiaBaseMetals insiders. Their average price was about CA$0.12. I'd consider this a positive as it suggests insiders see value at around the current price. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
AsiaBaseMetals is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find small cap companies at attractive valuations, this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
Have AsiaBaseMetals Insiders Traded Recently?
In the last quarter we saw Founder Rajinder Chowdhry spend CA$67k on shares. That's only a tiny bit more than the sales, worth CA$66k. Overall, we don't think these recent trades are particularly informative, one way or the other.
Does AsiaBaseMetals Boast High Insider Ownership?
Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It's great to see that AsiaBaseMetals insiders own 68% of the company, worth about CA$3.5m. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.