This Insider Has Just Sold Shares In Genworth Financial

Some Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE:GNW) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the President, Thomas McInerney, recently sold a substantial US$1.0m worth of stock at a price of US$6.88 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 2.9%.

Check out our latest analysis for Genworth Financial

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Genworth Financial

In fact, the recent sale by President Thomas McInerney was not their only sale of Genworth Financial shares this year. Earlier in the year, they fetched US$6.27 per share in a -US$1.3m sale. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (US$6.91). As a general rule we consider it to be discouraging when insiders are selling below the current price, because it suggests they were happy with a lower valuation. Please do note, however, that sellers may have a variety of reasons for selling, so we don't know for sure what they think of the stock price. This single sale was just 3.7% of Thomas McInerney's stake.

Thomas McInerney sold a total of 550.00k shares over the year at an average price of US$6.40. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. 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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Does Genworth Financial 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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Genworth Financial insiders own 2.0% of the company, worth about US$58m. 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 Does This Data Suggest About Genworth Financial Insiders?

An insider hasn't bought Genworth Financial stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. And even if we look at the last year, we didn't see any purchases. Insider ownership isn't particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example - Genworth Financial has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

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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.