Have Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ:TRMK) Insiders Been Selling Their Stock?

Anyone interested in Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ:TRMK) should probably be aware that the Director, Harry Walker, recently divested US$115k worth of shares in the company, at an average price of US$27.92 each. However, the silver lining is that the sale only reduced their total holding by 6.3%, so we're hesitant to read anything much into it, on its own.

See our latest analysis for Trustmark

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Trustmark

In fact, the recent sale by Harry Walker was the biggest sale of Trustmark shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even slightly below the current price of US$27.93. 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 6.3% of Harry Walker's holding.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$134k for 6.00k shares. But they sold 4.11k shares for US$115k. In total, Trustmark 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 want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

Trustmark is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider 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. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 1.6% of Trustmark shares, worth about US$28m. 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 Does This Data Suggest About Trustmark Insiders?

An insider sold stock recently, but they haven't been buying. But we take heart from prior transactions. And insiders do own shares. So we're not overly bothered by recent selling. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. While conducting our analysis, we found that Trustmark has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.

Of course Trustmark 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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