We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell Willis Lease Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:WLFC), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Buying?
It’s quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, rules govern insider transactions, including certain disclosures.
We don’t think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. As Peter Lynch said, ‘insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.’
See our latest analysis for Willis Lease Finance
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Willis Lease Finance
Chairman & CEO Charles Willis made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$4.1m worth of shares at a price of US$34.28 each. So it’s clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price. That means they have been optimistic about the company in the past, though they may have changed their mind. In any event it’s generally a positive if insiders are buying shares at around the current price.
Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 121.47k shares worth US$4.1m. On the other hand they divested 16.02k shares, for US$525k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Willis Lease Finance insiders. The average buy price was around US$34.13. These transactions show that insiders have confidence to invest their own money in the stock, albeit at slightly below the recent price of US$36.67. You can see the insider transactions 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!
For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
Insiders at Willis Lease Finance Have Sold Stock Recently
We have seen a bit of insider selling at Willis Lease Finance, over the last three months. Director Hans Hunziker sold just US$31k worth of shares in that time. It’s not great to see insider selling, nor the lack of recent buyers. But the volume sold is so low that it really doesn’t bother us.
Does Willis Lease Finance Boast High Insider Ownership?
Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Insiders own 13% of Willis Lease Finance shares, worth about US$30m. 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 Do The Willis Lease Finance Insider Transactions Indicate?
We note a that there’s been a little more insider selling than buying, recently. But the difference isn’t enough to have us worried. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. The transactions are fine but it’d be more encouraging if Willis Lease Finance insiders bought more shares in the company. I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow for free .
If you would prefer to check out another company — one with potentially superior financials — then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.