Have TopBuild Insiders Been Selling Stock?

Some TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the President of Special Operations & Executive Adviser, Steven Raia, recently sold a substantial US$546k worth of stock at a price of US$307 per share. That sale reduced their total holding by 15% which is hardly insignificant, but far from the worst we've seen.

See our latest analysis for TopBuild

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At TopBuild

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the CEO, President & Director, Robert Buck, sold US$2.0m worth of shares at a price of US$404 per share. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$305. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price.

TopBuild insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

I will like TopBuild better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Does TopBuild Boast High 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. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. It appears that TopBuild insiders own 0.8% of the company, worth about US$73m. 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 TopBuild Insider Transactions Indicate?

An insider sold TopBuild shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And there weren't any purchases to give us comfort, over the last year. But it is good to see that TopBuild is growing earnings. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. 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. While conducting our analysis, we found that TopBuild has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore them.

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 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.