Insider Sellers Might Regret Selling WesBanco Shares at a Lower Price Than Current Market Value

WesBanco, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:WSBC) value has fallen 11% in the last week, but insiders who sold US$522k worth of stock over the last year have had less success. Insiders would probably have been better off holding on to their shares given that the average selling price of US$30.92 is still lower than the current share price.

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.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At WesBanco

The Executive Vice President of Treasury & Strategic Planning, Brent Richmond, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$360k worth of shares at a price of US$31.26 each. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. The silver lining is that this sell-down took place above the latest price (US$27.40). So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

WesBanco insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

View our latest analysis for WesBanco

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Does WesBanco Boast High Insider Ownership?

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 3.1% of WesBanco shares, worth about US$57m. 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 Does This Data Suggest About WesBanco Insiders?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by WesBanco insiders. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. Of course, the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in WesBanco, you should check out this free report on analyst forecasts for the company .

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting 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.