We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Selling?
It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.
We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. As Peter Lynch said, ‘insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.’
Check out our latest analysis for Meridian Bioscience
Meridian Bioscience Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the insider, Lawrence Baldini, sold US$681k worth of shares at a price of US$19.55 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$9.23. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels. Lawrence Baldini was the only individual insider to sell shares in the last twelve months.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 32566 shares for US$375k. But insiders sold 35101 shares worth US$681k. You can see the insider transactions (by 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!
Insider Ownership of Meridian Bioscience
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. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 1.4% of Meridian Bioscience shares, worth about US$5.5m, according to our data. Overall, this level of ownership isn’t that impressive, but it’s certainly better than nothing!
So What Does This Data Suggest About Meridian Bioscience Insiders?
The fact that there have been no Meridian Bioscience insider transactions recently certainly doesn’t bother us. The insider transactions at Meridian Bioscience are not inspiring us to buy. And we’re not picking up on high enough insider ownership to give us any comfort. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for Meridian Bioscience.
Of course Meridian Bioscience 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, but not derivative transactions.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.