Possible Bearish Signals With Arvinas Insiders Disposing Stock

The fact that multiple Arvinas, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARVN) insiders offloaded a considerable amount of shares over the past year could have raised some eyebrows amongst investors. When analyzing insider transactions, it is usually more valuable to know whether insiders are buying versus knowing if they are selling, as the latter sends an ambiguous message. 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, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

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Arvinas Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Chairperson, John Houston, for US$524k worth of shares, at about US$16.75 per share. 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$11.72). So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price.

Over the last year we saw more insider selling of Arvinas shares, than buying. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

View our latest analysis for Arvinas

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Arvinas Insiders Bought Stock Recently

There has been significantly more insider buying, than selling, at Arvinas, over the last three months. We can see that Lead Independent Director Briggs Duncan W. Morrison paid US$227k for shares in the company. But VP & Chief Accounting Officer David Loomis sold shares worth US$2.3k. We think insiders may be optimistic about the future, since insiders have been net buyers of shares.

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. Insiders own 2.0% of Arvinas shares, worth about US$15m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Arvinas Tell Us?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. On the other hand the transaction history, over the last year, isn't so positive. The more recent transactions are a positive, but Arvinas insiders haven't shown the sustained enthusiasm that we look for, although they do own a decent number of shares, overall. Overall they seem reasonably aligned. 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 that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Arvinas (including 1 which is a bit unpleasant).

Of course Arvinas may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality companies.

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.