One Air Products and Chemicals Insider Raised Their Stake In The Previous Year

Insiders were net buyers of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.'s (NYSE:APD ) stock during the past year. That is, insiders bought more stock than they sold.

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 Air Products and Chemicals

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Air Products and Chemicals

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Chairman Seifollah Ghasemi bought US$2.9m worth of shares at a price of US$264 per share. That implies that an insider found the current price of US$288 per share to be enticing. 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. We do always like to see insider buying, but it is worth noting if those purchases were made at well below today's share price, as the discount to value may have narrowed with the rising price. Happily, the Air Products and Chemicals insider decided to buy shares at close to current prices. The only individual insider to buy over the last year was Seifollah Ghasemi.

Seifollah Ghasemi purchased 21.00k shares over the year. The average price per share was US$259. 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!

Air Products and Chemicals is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find small cap companies at attractive valuations, this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Insider Ownership Of Air Products and Chemicals

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It's great to see that Air Products and Chemicals insiders own 0.4% of the company, worth about US$232m. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

So What Do The Air Products and Chemicals Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. It would be great to see more insider buying, but overall it seems like Air Products and Chemicals insiders are reasonably well aligned (owning significant chunk of the company's shares) and optimistic for the future. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. You'd be interested to know, that we found 2 warning signs for Air Products and Chemicals and we suggest you have a look.

But note: Air Products and Chemicals may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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.