In This Article:
It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So we’ll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A).
Do Insider Transactions Matter?
Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock on the market. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.
We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. As Peter Lynch said, ‘insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.’
Check out our latest analysis for Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by Non-Executive Director Paul Clark for US$197k worth of shares, at about US$68.60 per share. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$65.46. They could have a variety of motivations for selling, but it’s still not particularly encouraging to see. We generally tread carefully if insiders have been selling on market, even if they sold slightly above the current price.
We note that in the last year insiders divested 8.82k shares for a total of US$620k. In total, Agilent Technologies insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The sellers received a price of around US$70.31, on average. We don’t gain much confidence from insider selling near the recent share price. But we don’t put too much weight on the insider selling, since sellers could have personal reasons. You can see the insider transactions 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!
I will like Agilent Technologies better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.
Insiders at Agilent Technologies Have Sold Stock Recently
The last quarter saw substantial insider selling of Agilent Technologies shares. In total, Chief Accounting Officer Rodney Gonsalves dumped US$107k worth of shares in that time, and we didn’t record any purchases whatsoever. This may suggest that some insiders think that the shares are not cheap.