Should You Be Worried About Insider Transactions At Mullen Group Ltd. (TSE:MTL)?

We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. 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 we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Mullen Group Ltd. (TSE:MTL).

What Is Insider Selling?

It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.

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 Mullen Group

Mullen Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Non Independent Director, David Mullen, for CA$11m worth of shares, at about CA$15.00 per share. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take price at a lower price. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is CA$12.08. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels. David Mullen was the only individual insider to sell shares in the last twelve months.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 41936 shares for CA$519k. But insiders sold 700k shares worth CA$11m. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this freelist of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insiders at Mullen Group Have Bought Stock Recently

We saw some Mullen Group insider buying shares in the last three months. Insiders bought CA$28k worth of shares in that time. It's good to see the insider buying, as well as the lack of recent sellers. But the amount invested in the last three months isn't enough for us too put much weight on it, as a single factor.

Insider Ownership

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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Mullen Group insiders own about CA$66m worth of shares. That equates to 5.2% of the company. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Mullen Group Insiders?

We note a that there has been a bit of insider buying recently (but no selling). Overall the buying isn't worth writing home about. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Mullen Group insiders. The modest level of insider ownership is, at least, some comfort. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at this FREEreport showing analyst forecasts for Mullen Group.

But note: Mullen Group may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this freelist of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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