Mark Emkes Is The Independent Chairman of the Board of CoreCivic, Inc. (NYSE:CXW) And They Just Picked Up 10% More Shares

Even if it's not a huge purchase, we think it was good to see that Mark Emkes, the Independent Chairman of the Board of CoreCivic, Inc. (NYSE:CXW) recently shelled out US$85k to buy stock, at US$8.52 per share. That purchase might not be huge but it did increase their holding by 10%.

Check out our latest analysis for CoreCivic

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At CoreCivic

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Executive VP & Chief Development Officer, Anthony Grande, for US$372k worth of shares, at about US$8.28 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (US$9.40). As a general rule we consider it to be discouraging when insiders are selling below the current price, because it suggests they were happy with a lower valuation. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. It is worth noting that this sale was only 33% of Anthony Grande's holding.

Over the last year we saw more insider selling of CoreCivic shares, than buying. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

I will like CoreCivic better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insider Ownership of CoreCivic

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 1.3% of CoreCivic shares, worth about US$14m. 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 Do The CoreCivic Insider Transactions Indicate?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. However, the longer term transactions are not so encouraging. While recent transactions indicate confidence in CoreCivic, insiders don't own enough of the company to overcome our cautiousness about the longer term transactions. Overall they seem reasonably aligned. 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. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for CoreCivic and we suggest you have a look.

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, but not derivative transactions.

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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.