CVS Health Insider Lowered Holding By 40% During Last Year

Looking at CVS Health Corporation's (NYSE:CVS ) insider transactions over the last year, we can see that insiders were net sellers. That is, there were more number of shares sold by insiders than there were purchased.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

See our latest analysis for CVS Health

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At CVS Health

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Group President, Prem Shah, for US$2.3m worth of shares, at about US$76.95 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$55.29). So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price. Prem Shah was the only individual insider to sell shares in the last twelve months.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$554k for 10.18k shares. On the other hand they divested 29.47k shares, for US$2.3m. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: Most of them are flying under the radar).

Does CVS Health 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. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It appears that CVS Health insiders own 0.1% of the company, worth about US$81m. 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 CVS Health Insider Transactions Indicate?

It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded CVS Health shares in the last quarter. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by CVS Health insiders. The modest level of insider ownership is, at least, some comfort. 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. When we did our research, we found 3 warning signs for CVS Health (1 is significant!) that we believe deserve your full attention.

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.