Glanbia Insiders Placed Bullish Bets Worth US$1.74m

Quite a few insiders have dramatically grown their holdings in Glanbia plc (ISE:GL9) over the past 12 months. An insider's optimism about the company's prospects is a positive sign.

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.

See our latest analysis for Glanbia

Glanbia Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by CFO & Executive Director Mark Garvey for €625k worth of shares, at about €18.38 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being €14.65). While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price. We note that Mark Garvey was both the biggest buyer and the biggest seller.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 96.19k shares worth €1.7m. But they sold 37.80k shares for €695k. In total, Glanbia insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Glanbia 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 Of Glanbia

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that Glanbia insiders own 0.6% of the company, worth about €22m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Do The Glanbia Insider Transactions Indicate?

It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded Glanbia shares in the last quarter. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders own shares in Glanbia and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Glanbia. To assist with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Glanbia.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

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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