Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive & Executive Director Acquires 1.7% More Stock

Potential Balfour Beatty plc (LON:BBY) shareholders may wish to note that the Group Chief Executive & Executive Director, Leo Quinn, recently bought UK£177k worth of stock, paying UK£3.09 for each share. While that's a very decent purchase to our minds, it was proportionally a bit modest, boosting their holding by just 1.7%.

View our latest analysis for Balfour Beatty

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Balfour Beatty

In fact, the recent purchase by Group Chief Executive & Executive Director Leo Quinn was not their only trade of Balfour Beatty shares this year. Earlier in the year, they sold shares at a price ofUK£3.73 per share in a -UK£278k transaction. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is UK£3.21. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 57.39k shares for UK£177k. On the other hand they divested 74.40k shares, for UK£278k. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

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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. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Insiders own 0.8% of Balfour Beatty shares, worth about UK£14m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Balfour Beatty Tell Us?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. On the other hand the transaction history, over the last year, isn't so positive. We don't take much heart from transactions by Balfour Beatty insiders over the last year. But they own a reasonable amount of the company, and there was some buying recently. So they seem pretty well aligned, overall. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Balfour Beatty (1 is concerning) you should be aware of.

But note: Balfour Beatty 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. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.