53% Of This Greggs Insider's Holdings Were Sold

Insiders were net sellers of Greggs plc's (LON:GRG ) stock during the past year. That is, insiders sold more stock than they bought.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Greggs

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the CFO & Executive Director, Richard Hutton, sold UK£1.9m worth of shares at a price of UK£28.51 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold 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 UK£16.45. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Richard Hutton.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 1.26k shares for UK£23k. But insiders sold 65.00k shares worth UK£1.9m. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

See our latest analysis for Greggs

I will like Greggs better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Have Greggs Insiders Traded Recently?

CEO & Executive Director Roisin Currie bought just UK£1.1k worth of shares in that time. That's not much at all. Overall, we don't think these recent trades are particularly informative, one way or the other.

Insider Ownership

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. Our data suggests Greggs insiders own 0.1% of the company, worth about UK£1.6m. We consider this fairly low insider ownership.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Greggs Insiders?

Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. That said, the purchases were not large. Our analysis of Greggs insider transactions leaves us unenthusiastic. We also note that, as far as we can see, insider ownership is fairly low, compared to other companies. 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. At Simply Wall St, we've found that Greggs has 3 warning signs (2 are a bit concerning!) that deserve your attention before going any further with your analysis.

Of course Greggs 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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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.