Trade Alert: Independent Chair of the Board Of Celestica Michael Wilson Has Sold Stock

Some Celestica Inc. (TSE:CLS) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Independent Chair of the Board, Michael Wilson, recently sold a substantial CA$3.5m worth of stock at a price of CA$142 per share. Probably the most concerning element of the whole transaction is that the disposal amounted to 93% of their entire holding.

View our latest analysis for Celestica

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Celestica

The President, Robert Mionis, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for CA$15m worth of shares at a price of CA$96.82 each. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even below the current price of CA$148. When an insider sells below the current price, it suggests that they considered that lower price to be fair. That makes us wonder what they think of the (higher) recent valuation. 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. This single sale was just 20% of Robert Mionis's stake.

Celestica insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. 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!

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Does Celestica Boast High Insider Ownership?

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 0.6% of Celestica shares, worth about CA$110m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Do The Celestica Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders sold stock recently, but they haven't been buying. Looking to the last twelve months, our data doesn't show any insider buying. But since Celestica is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. It is good to see high insider ownership, but the insider selling leaves us cautious. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Celestica. For example - Celestica has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

Of course Celestica 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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