We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we’d be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So we’ll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO).
What Is Insider Selling?
It’s quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.
We don’t think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Harvard University study found that ‘insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.’
Check out our latest analysis for Harvard Bioscience
Harvard Bioscience Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when Robert Gagnon sold US$51k worth of shares at a price of US$5.77 per share. Although we don’t gain confidence from insider selling, we note that this large sale was at well above current price of US$4.03. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Robert Gagnon.
You can see the insider transactions (by 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!
For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
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. Harvard Bioscience insiders own about US$20m worth of shares. That equates to 13% of the company. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.
So What Do The Harvard Bioscience Insider Transactions Indicate?
The fact that there have been no Harvard Bioscience insider transactions recently certainly doesn’t bother us. Still, the insider transactions at Harvard Bioscience in the last 12 months are not very heartening. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. Of course, the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in Harvard Bioscience, you should check out this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
But note: Harvard Bioscience 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.
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