Greggs Insider Lowered Holding By 53% During Last Year

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 insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Greggs

The CFO & Executive Director, Richard Hutton, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for UK£1.9m worth of shares at a price of UK£28.51 each. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of UK£17.12. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price. Richard Hutton was the only individual insider to sell over the last year.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 1.33k shares for UK£25k. But they sold 65.00k shares for UK£1.9m. 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!

Check out our latest analysis for Greggs

If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: Most of them are flying under the radar).

Greggs Insiders Bought Stock Recently

We saw some Greggs insider buying shares in the last three months. Insiders bought UK£21k worth of shares in that time. It's great to see that insiders are only buying, not selling. But the amount invested in the last three months isn't enough for us too put much weight on it, as a single factor.

Does Greggs Boast High Insider Ownership?

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Based on our data, Greggs insiders have about 0.1% of the stock, worth approximately UK£1.7m. I generally like to see higher levels of ownership.

So What Do The Greggs Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. The net investment is not enough to encourage us much. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Greggs insiders. And we're not picking up on high enough insider ownership to give us any comfort. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. To help with this, we've discovered 3 warning signs (2 shouldn't be ignored!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Greggs.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting 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.