Truecaller Chief Legal Officer Ola Espelund Sells 85% Of Holding

We'd be surprised if Truecaller AB (publ) (STO:TRUE B) shareholders haven't noticed that the Chief Legal Officer, Ola Espelund, recently sold kr3.6m worth of stock at kr66.96 per share. Equally important, that sale actually reduced their holding by a full 85% which hardly makes us feel bullish about the stock.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Truecaller

In fact, the recent sale by Ola Espelund was the biggest sale of Truecaller 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 kr61.25. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. 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 54.16k shares for kr2.4m. On the other hand they divested 232.06k shares, for kr16m. All up, insiders sold more shares in Truecaller than they bought, over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

See our latest analysis for Truecaller

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Does Truecaller Boast High 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. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It's great to see that Truecaller insiders own 16% of the company, worth about kr3.4b. 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 Truecaller Tell Us?

The stark truth for Truecaller is that there has been more insider selling than insider buying in the last three months. Despite some insider buying, the longer term picture doesn't make us feel much more positive. It is good to see high insider ownership, but the insider selling leaves us cautious. 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. At Simply Wall St, we found 2 warning signs for Truecaller that deserve your attention before buying any shares.

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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 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.