SSE Insiders Sold UK£1.5m Of Shares Suggesting Hesitancy

Over the past year, many SSE plc (LON:SSE) insiders sold a significant stake in the company which may have piqued investors' interest. Knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more helpful when evaluating insider transactions, as insider selling can have various explanations. However, shareholders should take a deeper look if several insiders are selling stock over a specific time period.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

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SSE Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the CEO & Executive Director, Paul Morton Phillips-Davies, for UK£906k worth of shares, at about UK£17.13 per share. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is UK£15.07. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 208.00 shares worth UK£3.6k. On the other hand they divested 87.61k shares, for UK£1.5m. Over the last year we saw more insider selling of SSE shares, than buying. The sellers received a price of around UK£17.13, on average. Insider selling doesn't make us excited to buy. But the selling was at much higher prices than the current share price (UK£15.07), so it probably doesn't tell us a lot about the value on offer today. 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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Have SSE Insiders Traded Recently?

There was only a small bit of insider buying, worth UK£1.5k, in the last three months. Overall, we don't think these recent trades are particularly informative, one way or the other.

Insider Ownership Of SSE

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 0.06% of SSE shares, worth about UK£10m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At SSE Tell Us?

Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. The net investment is not enough to encourage us much. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by SSE insiders. The modest level of insider ownership is, at least, some comfort. 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 - SSE has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

Of course SSE 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.