22% Of This ITV Insider's Holdings Were Sold

Viewing insider transactions for ITV plc's (LON:ITV ) over the last year, we see that insiders were net sellers. This means that a larger number of shares were sold by insiders in relation to shares purchased.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

View our latest analysis for ITV

ITV Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the MD of Commercial & Member of Management Board, Kelly Williams, sold UK£215k worth of shares at a price of UK£0.76 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of UK£0.74. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. Given that the sale took place at around current prices, it makes us a little cautious but is hardly a major concern. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Kelly Williams.

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!

I will like ITV 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.

Does ITV Boast High 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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 0.3% of ITV shares, worth about UK£7.4m, according to our data. We do generally prefer see higher levels of insider ownership.

So What Do The ITV Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by ITV insiders. And we're not picking up on high enough insider ownership to give us any comfort. 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. To help with this, we've discovered 3 warning signs (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in ITV.

Of course ITV 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.