Executive VP & COO Of Reliance Sold 45% Of Their Shares
We wouldn't blame Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that Stephen Koch, the Executive VP & COO recently netted about US$3.6m selling shares at an average price of US$431. That's a big disposal, and it decreased their holding size by 45%, which is notable but not too bad.
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Reliance
In fact, the recent sale by Executive VP & COO Stephen Koch was not their only sale of Reliance shares this year. Earlier in the year, they fetched US$323 per share in a -US$7.7m sale. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of US$444, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. While insider selling is not a positive sign, we can't be sure if it does mean insiders think the shares are fully valued, so it's only a weak sign. We note that the biggest single sale was 60% of Stephen Koch's holding.
Insiders in Reliance didn't buy any shares in the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
Check out our latest analysis for Reliance
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Insider Ownership
Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Reliance insiders own 0.4% of the company, worth about US$92m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.
What Might The Insider Transactions At Reliance Tell Us?
Insiders haven't bought Reliance stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. And there weren't any purchases to give us comfort, over the last year. But since Reliance is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. We'd practice some caution before buying! So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Reliance (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about.
Of course Reliance 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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