The fact that multiple U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) insiders offloaded a considerable amount of shares over the past year could have raised some eyebrows amongst investors. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying versus if they selling is usually more beneficial, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, when multiple insiders sell stock over a specific duration, shareholders should take notice as that could possibly be a red flag.
Although we don’t think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.
View our latest analysis for U.S. Bancorp
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At U.S. Bancorp
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Chief Administration Officer & Vice Chair, Terrance Dolan, sold US$1.0m worth of shares at a price of US$39.75 per share. While we don’t usually like to see insider selling, it’s more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$30.64. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.
Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$2.7m for 82.73k shares. But they sold 88.37k shares for US$3.7m. Over the last year we saw more insider selling of U.S. Bancorp shares, than buying. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
I will like U.S. Bancorp better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.
U.S. Bancorp Insiders Are Selling The Stock
The last quarter saw substantial insider selling of U.S. Bancorp shares. In total, insiders dumped US$1.6m 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.
Insider Ownership Of U.S. Bancorp
Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Insiders own 0.2% of U.S. Bancorp shares, worth about US$96m. We’ve certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.
So What Do The U.S. Bancorp Insider Transactions Indicate?
Insiders sold U.S. Bancorp shares recently, but they didn’t buy any. Despite some insider buying, the longer term picture doesn’t make us feel much more positive. While insiders do own shares, they don’t own a heap, and they have been selling. We’d practice some caution before buying! So while it’s helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it’s also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. While conducting our analysis, we found that U.S. Bancorp has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore these.
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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 of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
