Yahoo Finance Anglo American plc (LON:AAL) Insiders Increased Their Holdings
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 before you buy or sell Anglo American plc (LON:AAL), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Selling?
It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.
We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year'.
Check out our latest analysis for Anglo American
Anglo American Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
The CEO & Director Mark Cutifani made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for UK£1.1m worth of shares at a price of UK£11.09 each. Even though the purchase was made at a significantly lower price than the recent price (UK£24.84), we still think insider buying is a positive. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.
In the last twelve months Anglo American insiders were buying shares, but not selling. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) 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!
There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.
Insiders at Anglo American Have Bought Stock Recently
Over the last three months, we've seen significant insider buying at Anglo American. Specifically, insider James Rutherford bought UK£144k worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any sales whatsoever. That shows some optimism about the company's future.
Insider Ownership of Anglo American
Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It's great to see that Anglo American insiders own 0.2% of the company, worth about UK£74m. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.
So What Do The Anglo American Insider Transactions Indicate?
The recent insider purchase is heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Anglo American insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. You'd be interested to know, that we found 5 warning signs for Anglo American and we suggest you have a look.
But note: Anglo American may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.
For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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