Jacob Thaysen Bought 97% More Shares In Illumina

Those following along with Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) will no doubt be intrigued by the recent purchase of shares by Jacob Thaysen, CEO & Director of the company, who spent a stonking US$992k on stock at an average price of US$135. That increased their holding by a full 97%, which arguably implies the sort of confidence required for a shy sweet-natured nerd to ask the most popular kid in the school to go out on a date.

View our latest analysis for Illumina

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Illumina

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the insider, Susan Tousi, sold US$1.0m worth of shares at a price of US$210 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$140. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

In total, Illumina insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that Illumina insiders own 0.2% of the company, worth about US$37m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Do The Illumina Insider Transactions Indicate?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. However, the longer term transactions are not so encouraging. While recent transactions indicate confidence in Illumina, insiders don't own enough of the company to overcome our cautiousness about the longer term transactions. Overall they seem reasonably aligned. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

But note: Illumina 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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