Travis Lenkner Of Burford Capital Just Spent US$260k On A Handful Of Shares

Potential Burford Capital Limited (LON:BUR) shareholders may wish to note that insider Travis Lenkner recently bought UK£260k worth of stock, paying UK£10.28 for each share. However, it only increased shareholding by a small percentage, and it wasn't a huge purchase by absolute value, either.

View our latest analysis for Burford Capital

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Burford Capital

The Founder & Chief Investment Officer Jonathan Molot made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for UK£9.2m worth of shares at a price of UK£11.08 each. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being UK£10.44). While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. Notably Jonathan Molot was also the biggest seller.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid UK£9.5m for 860.27k shares. On the other hand they divested 834.97k shares, for UK£9.2m. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Burford Capital insiders. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.

Does Burford Capital Boast High 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. Burford Capital insiders own about UK£127m worth of shares (which is 5.5% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.

So What Do The Burford Capital Insider Transactions Indicate?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Burford Capital insiders are well aligned, and quite possibly think the share price is too low. Nice! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Burford Capital. For example, Burford Capital has 2 warning signs (and 1 which can't be ignored) we think you should know about.

Of course Burford Capital 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.