Insiders At New York Times Sold US$3.0m In Stock, Alluding To Potential Weakness

In the last year, many The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) insiders sold a substantial stake in the company which may have sparked shareholders' attention. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more beneficial than knowing whether they are selling, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, when multiple insiders sell stock over a specific duration, shareholders should take notice as that could possibly be a red flag.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

See our latest analysis for New York Times

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At New York Times

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the CEO, President & Director, Meredith Kopit Levien, for US$987k worth of shares, at about US$53.92 per share. That means that even when the share price was slightly below the current price of US$54.18, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. 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. We note that the biggest single sale was only 25% of Meredith Kopit Levien's holding.

Insiders in New York Times didn't buy any shares in the last year. 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!

I will like New York Times better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insider Ownership Of New York Times

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. Insiders own 0.6% of New York Times shares, worth about US$54m. 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 New York Times Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no New York Times insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. Our analysis of New York Times insider transactions leaves us cautious. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. Therefore, you should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for New York Times.

But note: New York Times 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.