Kura Oncology's Stock Sinks To US$8.94, But Insiders Sold Even Lower

Even though Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) has fallen by 10% over the past week , insiders who sold US$240k worth of stock over the past year have had less luck. Insiders might have been better off holding onto their shares, given that the average selling price of US$17.73 is still below the current share price.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

View our latest analysis for Kura Oncology

Kura Oncology Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Chief Medical Officer, Stephen Dale, for US$127k worth of shares, at about US$17.80 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$8.94. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

Kura Oncology 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. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

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Have Kura Oncology Insiders Traded Recently?

We have seen a bit of insider selling at Kura Oncology, over the last three months. Chief Operating Officer Kathleen Ford only netted US$8.4k selling shares, in that period. It's not great to see insider selling, nor the lack of recent buyers. But the selling simply isn't sufficiently substantial to be of much use as a signal.

Insider Ownership Of Kura Oncology

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 0.8% of Kura Oncology shares, worth about US$5.8m, according to our data. Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing!

So What Do The Kura Oncology Insider Transactions Indicate?

While there has not been any insider buying in the last three months, there has been selling. But given the selling was modest, we're not worried. We're a little cautious about the insider selling at Kura Oncology. And we're not picking up on high enough insider ownership to give us any comfort. 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. When we did our research, we found 4 warning signs for Kura Oncology (1 is potentially serious!) that we believe deserve your full attention.

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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.