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We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
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, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.
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 Flowers Foods
Flowers Foods Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
David Roach made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$222k worth of shares at a price of US$21.13 each. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$18.29. They could have a variety of motivations for selling, but it’s still not particularly encouraging to see. We usually pause to reflect on the potential that a stock has a high valuation, if insiders have been selling at around the current price. The only individual insider seller over the last year was David Roach.
The chart below shows insider transactions over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!
I will like Flowers Foods better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.
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. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Flowers Foods insiders own about US$332m worth of shares (which is 8.6% of the company). Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.