Don't Ignore The Insider Selling In loanDepot

Some loanDepot, Inc. (NYSE:LDI) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Founder, Anthony Hsieh, recently sold a substantial US$654k worth of stock at a price of US$1.50 per share. However, it's crucial to note that they remain very much invested in the stock and that sale only reduced their holding by 4.1%.

loanDepot Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent sale by Founder Anthony Hsieh was not their only sale of loanDepot shares this year. They previously made an even bigger sale of -US$2.3m worth of shares at a price of US$2.29 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$1.41). So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

Over the last year we saw more insider selling of loanDepot shares, than buying. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) 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!

See our latest analysis for loanDepot

I will like loanDepot 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.

Insider Ownership Of loanDepot

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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 6.6% of loanDepot shares, worth about US$30m. 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 Does This Data Suggest About loanDepot Insiders?

An insider hasn't bought loanDepot stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. We'd practice some caution before buying! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing loanDepot. When we did our research, we found 2 warning signs for loanDepot (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that we believe deserve your full attention.

Of course loanDepot 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.