Need To Know: Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Limited (ASX:NEC) Insiders Have Been Buying Shares

It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Limited (ASX:NEC), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

What Is Insider Buying?

Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the 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'.

View our latest analysis for Nine Entertainment Holdings

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Nine Entertainment Holdings

The Independent Non-Executive Director Catherine West made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for AU$99k worth of shares at a price of AU$1.66 each. Although we like to see insider buying, we note that this large purchase was at significantly below the recent price of AU$3.00. Because the shares were purchased at a lower price, this particular buy doesn't tell us much about how insiders feel about the current share price.

You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Our data indicates that Nine Entertainment Holdings insiders own about AU$12m worth of shares (which is 0.2% of the company). But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. We do generally prefer see higher levels of insider ownership.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Nine Entertainment Holdings Tell Us?

The fact that there have been no Nine Entertainment Holdings insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Overall we don't see anything to make us think Nine Entertainment Holdings insiders are doubting the company, and they do own shares. 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 1 warning sign for Nine Entertainment Holdings you should know about.

But note: Nine Entertainment Holdings 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, but not derivative transactions.

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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. 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.
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