Yahoo Finance USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NYSE:USNA) Insiders Have Been Selling
We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. On the other hand, we’d be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NYSE:USNA).
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, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.
We don’t think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. 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.’
See our latest analysis for USANA Health Sciences
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At USANA Health Sciences
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by Founder & Chairman of the Board Myron Wentz for US$46m worth of shares, at about US$118 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at below the current price (US$121). Even though it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, that’s certainly not a positive sign, in our book. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling on market, especially if they did so below the current price. We note that the biggest single sale was only 3.7% of Myron Wentz’s holding. Notably Myron Wentz was also the biggest buyer, having purchased US$1.3m worth of shares.
In total, USANA Health Sciences insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The sellers received a price of around US$105, on average. It’s not particularly great to see insiders were selling shares at below recent prices. Of course, the sales could be motivated for a multitude of reasons, so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. The chart below shows insider transactions over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.
Insiders at USANA Health Sciences Have Sold Stock Recently
The last quarter saw substantial insider selling of USANA Health Sciences shares. In total, insiders sold US$252k worth of shares in that time, and we didn’t record any purchases whatsoever. Overall this makes us a bit cautious, but it’s not the be all and end all.
Does USANA Health Sciences Boast High Insider Ownership?
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. I reckon it’s a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It’s great to see that USANA Health Sciences insiders own 41% of the company, worth about US$1.2b. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.
What Might The Insider Transactions At USANA Health Sciences Tell Us?
Insiders sold stock recently, but they haven’t been buying. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn’t give us much comfort. While insiders do own a lot of shares in the company (which is good), our analysis of their transactions doesn’t make us feel confident about the company. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for USANA Health Sciences.
But note: USANA Health Sciences 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.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
