Have Insiders Sold Sunrun Shares Recently?

We'd be surprised if Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) shareholders haven't noticed that the CEO & Director, Mary Powell, recently sold US$124k worth of stock at US$10.80 per share. On the bright side, that sale was only 4.2% of their holding, so we doubt it's very meaningful, on its own.

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Sunrun Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Co-Founder & Executive Co-Chair of the Board Edward Fenster for US$1.0m worth of shares, at about US$6.80 per share. Even though the purchase was made at a significantly lower price than the recent price (US$10.11), 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.

In total, Sunrun insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The sellers received a price of around US$9.56, on average. We don't gain confidence from insider selling below the recent share price. Since insiders sell for many reasons, we wouldn't put too much weight on it. 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 Sunrun

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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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Sunrun insiders own about US$52m worth of shares. That equates to 2.2% of the company. 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 Sunrun Insiders?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. But we can't say the same for the transactions over the last 12 months. While recent transactions indicate confidence in Sunrun, insiders don't own enough of the company to overcome our cautiousness about the longer term transactions. Overall they seem reasonably aligned. While it's good to be aware of 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. For example, Sunrun has 3 warning signs (and 2 which are a bit unpleasant) we think you should know about.

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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.