Fennec Pharmaceuticals Drops To US$4.26, Yet Insiders May Have Sold Too Early

Fennec Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s (NASDAQ:FENC) stock price has dropped 11% in the previous week, but insiders who sold US$476k in stock over the past year have had less luck. The average selling price of US$9.30 is still lower than the current share price, or in other words, insiders would have been better off holding on to their shares.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we do think it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing.

View our latest analysis for Fennec Pharmaceuticals

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Fennec Pharmaceuticals

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the insider, Adrian Haigh, for US$414k worth of shares, at about US$9.34 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$4.26). So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it. Notably Adrian Haigh was also the biggest buyer, having purchased US$56k worth of shares.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$56k for 25.37k shares. But they sold 51.18k shares for US$476k. All up, insiders sold more shares in Fennec Pharmaceuticals than they bought, over the last year. 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!

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of small cap stocks that are not only being bought by insiders but also have attractive valuations.

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. Based on our data, Fennec Pharmaceuticals insiders have about 1.6% of the stock, worth approximately US$1.9m. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. We consider this fairly low insider ownership.

So What Do The Fennec Pharmaceuticals Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Fennec Pharmaceuticals insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. The insider transactions at Fennec Pharmaceuticals are not inspiring us to buy. And usually insiders own more stock in the company, according to our data. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Fennec Pharmaceuticals (1 is significant) you should be aware of.

But note: Fennec Pharmaceuticals 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.