Have Insiders Sold AO World Shares Recently?

We wouldn't blame AO World plc (LON:AO.) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that John Roberts, the Founder recently netted about UK£942k selling shares at an average price of UK£0.94. However, that sale only accounted for 1.0% of their holding, so arguably it doesn't say much about their conviction.

Our free stock report includes 1 warning sign investors should be aware of before investing in AO World. Read for free now.

AO World Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent sale by Founder John Roberts was not the only time they sold AO World shares this year. They previously made an even bigger sale of -UK£8.1m worth of shares at a price of UK£1.17 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£0.96). So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

In the last year AO World insiders didn't buy any company stock. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

View our latest analysis for AO World

I will like AO World 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.

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. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. AO World insiders own 20% of the company, currently worth about UK£113m based on the recent share price. 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 Does This Data Suggest About AO World Insiders?

An insider sold stock recently, but they haven't been buying. And even if we look at the last year, we didn't see any purchases. It is good to see high insider ownership, but the insider selling leaves us cautious. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing AO World. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for AO World and we suggest you have a look.

Of course AO World 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.