Don't Ignore The Insider Selling In Arrow Financial

Investors may wish to note that the Independent Director of Arrow Financial Corporation, Raymond O'Conor, recently netted US$95k from selling stock, receiving an average price of US$23.63. On the bright side, that's just a small sale and only reduced their holding by 7.9%.

See our latest analysis for Arrow Financial

Arrow Financial Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Independent Director Colin Read made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$315k worth of shares at a price of US$21.33 each. Even though the purchase was made at a significantly lower price than the recent price (US$23.74), we still think insider buying is a positive. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 35.03k shares worth US$754k. But insiders sold 4.00k shares worth US$95k. Overall, Arrow Financial insiders were net buyers during the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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. Insiders own 2.6% of Arrow Financial shares, worth about US$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.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Arrow Financial Insiders?

An insider sold Arrow Financial shares recently, but they didn't buy any. In contrast, they appear keener if you look at the last twelve months. It's good to see insiders are shareholders. So we're not overly bothered by recent selling. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. To assist with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Arrow Financial.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting 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.