Stock Analysis

Read This Before Buying Sabre Insurance Group plc (LON:SBRE) Shares

LSE:SBRE
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We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Sabre Insurance Group plc (LON:SBRE).

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 equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year'.

Check out our latest analysis for Sabre Insurance Group

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Sabre Insurance Group

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Claims Director, Trevor Webb, sold UK£965k worth of shares at a price of UK£2.80 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of UK£2.50. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive).

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid UK£159k for 62.78k shares. On the other hand they divested 504.29k shares, for UK£1.4m. All up, insiders sold more shares in Sabre Insurance Group than they bought, over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

insider-trading-volume
LSE:SBRE Insider Trading Volume February 23rd 2021

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

Insider Ownership

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 1.8% of Sabre Insurance Group shares, worth about UK£11m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Do The Sabre Insurance Group Insider Transactions Indicate?

It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded Sabre Insurance Group shares in the last quarter. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Sabre Insurance Group insiders. But it's good to see that insiders own shares in the company. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Sabre Insurance Group you should know about.

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, 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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