Who Has Been Selling Wilhelmina International, Inc. (NASDAQ:WHLM) Shares?

It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So before you buy or sell Wilhelmina International, Inc. (NASDAQ:WHLM), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

Do Insider Transactions Matter?

Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year'.

See our latest analysis for Wilhelmina International

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Wilhelmina International

In fact, the recent purchase by insider Ralph Bartel was not their only trade of Wilhelmina International shares this year. They previously made a sale of -US$148k worth of shares at a price of US$10.01 per share. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. The silver lining is that this sell-down took place above the latest price (US$6.40). So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

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Insiders at Wilhelmina International Have Bought Stock Recently

Over the last three months, we've seen a bit of insider buying at Wilhelmina International. insider Ralph Bartel purchased US$23k worth of shares in that period. It's great to see that insiders are only buying, not selling. But in this case the amount purchased means the recent transaction may not be very meaningful on its own.

Does Wilhelmina International Boast High Insider Ownership?

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Wilhelmina International insiders own 36% of the company, worth about US$12m. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.

So What Do The Wilhelmina International Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. That said, the purchases were not large. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Wilhelmina International insiders. The modest level of insider ownership is, at least, some comfort. 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. When we did our research, we found 3 warning signs for Wilhelmina International (1 is significant!) that we believe deserve your full attention.

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.

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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