Executive VP & Chief Commercial Officer Of Arcutis Biotherapeutics Sold 40% Of Their Shares

We wouldn't blame Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQT) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that Larry Edwards, the Executive VP & Chief Commercial Officer recently netted about US$733k selling shares at an average price of US$25.16. That's a big disposal, and it decreased their holding size by 40%, which is notable but not too bad.

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Arcutis Biotherapeutics Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent sale by Larry Edwards was the biggest sale of Arcutis Biotherapeutics shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$23.45. 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).

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 12.79k shares for US$48k. But insiders sold 253.56k shares worth US$3.9m. In total, Arcutis Biotherapeutics insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The average sell price was around US$15.44. It's not particularly great to see insiders were selling shares at below recent prices. Since insiders sell for many reasons, we wouldn't put too much weight on it. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

View our latest analysis for Arcutis Biotherapeutics

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Insider Ownership Of Arcutis Biotherapeutics

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 1.7% of Arcutis Biotherapeutics shares, worth about US$49m. 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 Arcutis Biotherapeutics Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders sold Arcutis Biotherapeutics shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. 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. To assist with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Arcutis Biotherapeutics.

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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.