Possible Bearish Signals With Selective Insurance Group Insiders Disposing Stock

Over the past year, many Selective Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGI) insiders sold a significant stake in the company which may have piqued investors' interest. Knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more helpful when evaluating insider transactions, as insider selling can have various explanations. However, shareholders should take a deeper look if several insiders are selling stock over a specific time period.

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.

View our latest analysis for Selective Insurance Group

Selective Insurance Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The CEO, President & Chairman, John Marchioni, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$2.1m worth of shares at a price of US$102 each. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$96.97. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive). Notably John Marchioni was also the biggest buyer, having purchased US$471k worth of shares.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$471k for 5.40k shares. On the other hand they divested 26.43k shares, for US$2.7m. All up, insiders sold more shares in Selective Insurance Group than they bought, 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 click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

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Selective Insurance Group Insiders Bought Stock Recently

Over the last quarter, Selective Insurance Group insiders have spent a meaningful amount on shares. We can see that Independent Director Terrence Cavanaugh paid US$172k for shares in the company. No-one sold. This is a positive in our book as it implies some confidence.

Insider Ownership Of Selective Insurance Group

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. Insiders own 1.5% of Selective Insurance Group shares, worth about US$90m. 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 Selective Insurance Group Insider Transactions Indicate?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. On the other hand the transaction history, over the last year, isn't so positive. The more recent transactions are a positive, but Selective Insurance Group insiders haven't shown the sustained enthusiasm that we look for, although they do own a decent number of shares, overall. In short they are likely aligned with shareholders. Therefore, you should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for Selective Insurance Group.

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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.