Possible Bearish Signals With Greif Insiders Disposing Stock

Over the past year, many Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) 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, if numerous insiders are selling, shareholders should investigate more.

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.

Check out our latest analysis for Greif

Greif Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Executive VP, Gary Martz, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$3.1m worth of shares at a price of US$68.46 each. 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$58.03). So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

Greif insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

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).

Insiders At Greif Have Sold Stock Recently

We have seen a bit of insider selling at Greif, over the last three months. Executive VP & Chief Human Resources Officer Bala Sathyanarayanan sold just US$45k worth of shares in that time. It's not great to see insider selling, nor the lack of recent buyers. But the selling simply isn't sufficiently substantial to be of much use as a signal.

Does Greif Boast High Insider Ownership?

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. It's great to see that Greif insiders own 36% of the company, worth about US$1.0b. 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 Does This Data Suggest About Greif Insiders?

While there has not been any insider buying in the last three months, there has been selling. But given the selling was modest, we're not worried. It's great to see high levels of insider ownership, but looking back over the last year, we don't gain confidence from the Greif insiders selling. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Greif. While conducting our analysis, we found that Greif has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.

But note: Greif 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.