Insiders who bought Skolon AB (publ) (STO:SKOLON) stock in the last 12 months were richly rewarded last week. The company's market value increased by kr111m as a result of the stock's 12% gain over the same period. Put another way, the original kr2.02m acquisition is now worth kr3.85m.
While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.
View our latest analysis for Skolon
The Director Per-Anders Johansson made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for kr864k worth of shares at a price of kr18.00 each. Although we like to see insider buying, we note that this large purchase was at significantly below the recent price of kr38.00. 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.
Per-Anders Johansson bought a total of 101.24k shares over the year at an average price of kr19.96. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) 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!
Skolon is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find small cap companies at attractive valuations, this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
In the last quarter insider Sebastian Matuska sold kr31k worth of equity. That's not a lot. The net selling is so small that it's hard to draw any conclusions from these recent transactions.
I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Based on our data, Skolon insiders have about 2.9% of the stock, worth approximately kr29m. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. We consider this fairly low insider ownership.
While there has not been any insider buying in the last three months, there has been selling. But the sales were small, so we're not concerned. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Overall we don't see anything to make us think Skolon insiders are doubting the company, and they do own shares. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example - Skolon has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.
Of course Skolon may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality companies.
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.