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Coca-Cola Insiders Sell US$32m Of Stock, Possibly Signalling Caution

Simply Wall St · 01/05 18:59

The fact that multiple The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) 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 is usually more beneficial than knowing whether they are selling, 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.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Coca-Cola

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Chairman & CEO, James Robert Quincey, for US$10m worth of shares, at about US$71.01 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$69.12. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive).

Over the last year we saw more insider selling of Coca-Cola shares, than buying. 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!

See our latest analysis for Coca-Cola

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NYSE:KO Insider Trading Volume January 5th 2026

I will like Coca-Cola better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insiders At Coca-Cola Have Sold Stock Recently

There was substantially more insider selling, than buying, of Coca-Cola shares over the last three months. In total, Executive VP & Global Chief Marketing Officer Manuel Prieto sold US$9.9m worth of shares in that time. On the other hand we note insider Max Levchin bought US$999k worth of shares , as previously mentioned . Since the selling really does outweigh the buying, we'd say that these transactions may suggest that some insiders feel the shares are not cheap.

Insider Ownership Of Coca-Cola

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Coca-Cola insiders own about US$1.7b worth of shares (which is 0.6% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Coca-Cola Insiders?

The insider sales have outweighed the insider buying, at Coca-Cola, in the last three months. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. But since Coca-Cola is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. 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. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Coca-Cola. To help with this, we've discovered 3 warning signs (1 is concerning!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Coca-Cola.

But note: Coca-Cola 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.