With Hochschild Mining plc's (LON:HOC)) price down 5.6% this week, insiders might find some solace having sold US$1.3m worth of shares earlier this year.

Insiders at Hochschild Mining plc (LON:HOC) sold US$1.3m worth of stock at an average price of US$2.18 a share over the past year, making the most of their investment. After the stock price dropped 5.6% last week, the company's market value declined by UK£40m, but insiders were able to mitigate their losses.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Check out our latest analysis for Hochschild Mining

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Hochschild Mining

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the CEO & Director, Ignacio Bustamante, for UK£1.3m worth of shares, at about UK£2.26 per share. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. The silver lining is that this sell-down took place above the latest price (UK£1.29). So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price. Ignacio Bustamante was the only individual insider to sell 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!

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Hochschild Mining insiders own about UK£256m worth of shares (which is 39% of the company). Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

So What Do The Hochschild Mining Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Hochschild Mining insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. It's heartening that insiders own plenty of stock, but we'd like to see more insider buying, since the last year of Hochschild Mining insider transactions don't fill us with confidence. 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. While conducting our analysis, we found that Hochschild Mining has 3 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore them.

Of course Hochschild Mining 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, but not derivative transactions.

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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.