IG Design Group plc (LON:IGR) Insiders Have Been Selling

We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in IG Design Group plc (LON:IGR).

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, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year'.

View our latest analysis for IG Design Group

IG Design Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Group CEO, Paul Fineman, for UK£11m worth of shares, at about UK£4.60 per share. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of UK£4.98, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. As a general rule we consider it to be discouraging when insiders are selling below the current price, because it suggests they were happy with a lower valuation. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. We note that the biggest single sale was 100% of Paul Fineman's holding.

IG Design Group insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. 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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Insiders at IG Design Group Have Sold Stock Recently

Over the last three months, we've seen significant insider selling at IG Design Group. In total, CFO & Director Giles Willits dumped UK£567k worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any purchases whatsoever. Overall this makes us a bit cautious, but it's not the be all and end all.

Insider Ownership of IG Design Group

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. From what we can see in our data, insiders own only about UK£584k worth of IG Design Group shares. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. We might be missing something but that seems like very low insider ownership.

So What Do The IG Design Group Insider Transactions Indicate?

An insider hasn't bought IG Design Group stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. And there weren't any purchases to give us comfort, over the last year. When you consider that most companies have higher levels of insider ownership, we're a little wary. So we're not rushing to buy, to say the least. 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. While conducting our analysis, we found that IG Design Group has 5 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore them.

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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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