Don't Ignore The Insider Selling In Computacenter \

Some Computacenter plc (LON:CCC) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Group CEO & Executive Director, Mike Norris, recently sold a substantial UK£1.3m worth of stock at a price of UK£23.19 per share. However, that sale only accounted for 4.8% of their holding, so arguably it doesn't say much about their conviction.

Check out our latest analysis for Computacenter

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Computacenter

In fact, the recent sale by Mike Norris was the biggest sale of Computacenter shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of UK£22.80. 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).

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 5.07k shares for UK£109k. On the other hand they divested 55.00k shares, for UK£1.3m. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

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Insider Ownership Of Computacenter

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. Computacenter insiders own about UK£444m worth of shares (which is 17% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Computacenter Tell Us?

The insider sales have outweighed the insider buying, at Computacenter, in the last three months. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. While insiders do own a lot of shares in the company (which is good), our analysis of their transactions doesn't make us feel confident about the company. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Computacenter you should be aware of.

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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.