Insider Spends US$689k Buying More Shares In i-80 Gold

Potential i-80 Gold Corp. (TSE:IAU) shareholders may wish to note that the CEO & Director, Richard Young, recently bought CA$689k worth of stock, paying CA$0.58 for each share. That certainly has us anticipating the best, especially since they thusly increased their own holding by 175%, potentially signalling some real optimism.

Check out our latest analysis for i-80 Gold

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At i-80 Gold

In fact, the recent purchase by CEO & Director Richard Young was not their only acquisition of i-80 Gold shares this year. Earlier in the year, they paid CA$1.52 per share in a CA$1.0m purchase. That means that even when the share price was higher than CA$0.91 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 3.02m shares worth CA$3.0m. On the other hand they divested 130.00k shares, for CA$255k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by i-80 Gold insiders. The average buy price was around CA$0.99. I'd consider this a positive as it suggests insiders see value at around the current price. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

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

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Insiders own 6.6% of i-80 Gold shares, worth about CA$24m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At i-80 Gold Tell Us?

The recent insider purchases are heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. But on the other hand, the company made a loss during the last year, which makes us a little cautious. Insiders likely see value in i-80 Gold shares, given these transactions (along with notable insider ownership of the company). So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. Be aware that i-80 Gold is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 2 of those are a bit concerning...

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity 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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