While China Beststudy Education Group (HKG:3978) shareholders have had a good week with the stock up 28%, they shouldn't let their guards down. In spite of the relatively cheap prices, insiders made the decision to sell CN¥13m worth of stock in the last 12 months. This could be a warning indicator of vulnerabilities in the future.
Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.
We check all companies for important risks. See what we found for China Beststudy Education Group in our free report.Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the insider, Wenhui Xu, for HK$2.7m worth of shares, at about HK$3.88 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (HK$4.81). When an insider sells below the current price, it suggests that they considered that lower price to be fair. That makes us wonder what they think of the (higher) recent valuation. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. This single sale was just 10% of Wenhui Xu's stake. Wenhui Xu was the only individual insider to sell shares in the last twelve months. Notably Wenhui Xu was also the biggest buyer, having purchased HK$58k worth of shares.
Wenhui Xu sold a total of 3.67m shares over the year at an average price of CN¥3.49. 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!
See our latest analysis for China Beststudy Education Group
If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: Most of them are flying under the radar).
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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It's great to see that China Beststudy Education Group insiders own 79% of the company, worth about HK$2.8b. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.
There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. While we feel good about high insider ownership of China Beststudy Education Group, we can't say the same about the selling of shares. Therefore, you should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for China Beststudy Education Group.
But note: China Beststudy Education Group 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 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.