Traeger Up 17%, Insiders Still In The Red By US$345k

Insiders who bought US$1.01m worth of Traeger, Inc. (NYSE:COOK) stock in the last year recovered part of their losses as the stock rose by 17% last week. However, the purchase is proving to be a costly gamble, since losses made by insiders have totalled US$345k since the time of purchase.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Traeger

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Chairman of the Board & CEO Jeremy Andrus bought US$1.0m worth of shares at a price of US$1.46 per share. That means that even when the share price was higher than US$0.91 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock when an insider has bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price. Jeremy Andrus was the only individual insider to buy shares in the last twelve months.

Jeremy Andrus bought a total of 730.39k shares over the year at an average price of US$1.38. 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!

View our latest analysis for Traeger

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. If investing in lesser known companies is your style, you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Does Traeger Boast High Insider Ownership?

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Traeger insiders own 13% of the company, worth about US$16m. 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 Traeger Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Traeger insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Insiders own shares in Traeger and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. While conducting our analysis, we found that Traeger has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore it.

Of course Traeger may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality 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.