Don't Ignore The Insider Selling In Journey Medical

We'd be surprised if Journey Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:DERM) shareholders haven't noticed that the Founder, Claude Maraoui, recently sold US$361k worth of stock at US$5.11 per share. On the bright side, that sale was only 3.5% of their holding, so we doubt it's very meaningful, on its own.

View our latest analysis for Journey Medical

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Journey Medical

Notably, that recent sale by Claude Maraoui is the biggest insider sale of Journey Medical shares that we've seen in the last year. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$5.15. 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 70.00k shares for US$237k. But they sold 175.03k shares for US$891k. All up, insiders sold more shares in Journey Medical than they bought, over the last year. 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!

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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. Our data indicates that Journey Medical insiders own about US$5.5m worth of shares (which is 5.3% of the company). Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing!

So What Do The Journey Medical Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders sold Journey Medical shares recently, but they didn't buy any. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. When you consider that most companies have higher levels of insider ownership, we're a little wary. So we're not rushing to buy, to say the least. While it's good to be aware of what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. At Simply Wall St, we've found that Journey Medical has 2 warning signs (1 is significant!) that deserve your attention before going any further with your analysis.

Of course Journey Medical 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.