Blueprint Medicines Insiders Sold US$6.5m Of Shares Suggesting Hesitancy

The fact that multiple Blueprint Medicines Corporation (NASDAQ:BPMC) insiders offloaded a considerable amount of shares over the past year could have raised some eyebrows amongst investors. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying versus if they selling is usually more beneficial, 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 we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Check out our latest analysis for Blueprint Medicines

Blueprint Medicines Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The President, Kathryn Haviland, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$1.1m worth of shares at a price of US$90.69 each. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even below the current price of US$103. 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. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. We note that the biggest single sale was only 17% of Kathryn Haviland's holding.

Blueprint Medicines insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart 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).

Blueprint Medicines Insiders Are Selling The Stock

The last three months saw significant insider selling at Blueprint Medicines. In total, insiders sold US$6.1m worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any purchases whatsoever. Overall this makes us a bit cautious, but it's not the be all and end all.

Does Blueprint Medicines Boast High Insider Ownership?

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 1.1% of Blueprint Medicines shares, worth about US$68m. 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 Blueprint Medicines Tell Us?

Insiders sold Blueprint Medicines shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And there weren't any purchases to give us comfort, over the last year. 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 2 warning signs that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Blueprint Medicines.

But note: Blueprint Medicines 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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