Clive Whiley Bought 100% More Shares In Mothercare

Potential Mothercare plc (LON:MTC) shareholders may wish to note that the Non-Executive Chairman, Clive Whiley, recently bought UK£100k worth of stock, paying UK£0.025 for each share. That certainly has us anticipating the best, especially since they thusly increased their own holding by 100%, potentially signalling some real optimism.

View our latest analysis for Mothercare

Mothercare Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent purchase by Clive Whiley was the biggest purchase of Mothercare shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of UK£0.04. Because it occurred at a lower valuation, it doesn't tell us much about whether insiders might find today's price attractive.

In the last twelve months Mothercare insiders were buying shares, but not selling. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Mothercare is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find small cap companies at attractive valuations, this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Insiders own 15% of Mothercare shares, worth about UK£3.4m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Mothercare Tell Us?

The recent insider purchases are heartening. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. However, we note that the company didn't make a profit over the last twelve months, which makes us cautious. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Mothercare insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example, Mothercare has 3 warning signs (and 2 which are concerning) we think you should know about.

Of course Mothercare 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.