Mark Cairns Is The Chief Executive Officer of Port of Tauranga Limited (NZSE:POT) And They Just Sold 39% Of Their Shares

Some Port of Tauranga Limited (NZSE:POT) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Chief Executive Officer, Mark Cairns, recently sold a substantial NZ$2.2m worth of stock at a price of NZ$7.33 per share. That sale reduced their total holding by 39% which is hardly insignificant, but far from the worst we've seen.

View our latest analysis for Port of Tauranga

Port of Tauranga Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent sale by Mark Cairns is the biggest insider sale of Port of Tauranga shares that we've seen in the last year. That means that an insider was selling shares at below the current price (NZ$7.35). We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. It is worth noting that this sale was only 39% of Mark Cairns's holding.

You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

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Insider Ownership

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that Port of Tauranga insiders own 1.0% of the company, worth about NZ$48m. 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 Port of Tauranga Tell Us?

An insider hasn't bought Port of Tauranga stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Port of Tauranga. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Port of Tauranga you should know about.

Of course Port of Tauranga 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, but not derivative transactions.

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