Pyxis Oncology Insider Stock Sellers Must Be Relieved As Market Cap Falls To US$203m

Insiders at Pyxis Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYXS) sold US$81k worth of stock at an average price of US$2.23 a share over the past year, making the most of their investment. The company’s market cap plunged by US$34m after price dropped by 15% last week but insiders were able to limit their loss to an extent.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

See our latest analysis for Pyxis Oncology

Pyxis Oncology Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The CEO, President & Director, Lara Sullivan, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$63k worth of shares at a price of US$2.27 each. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (US$3.25). When an insider sells below the current price, it suggests that they considered that lower price to be fair. That makes us wonder what they think of the (higher) recent valuation. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. It is worth noting that this sale was only 2.3% of Lara Sullivan's holding. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Lara Sullivan.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 41.43k shares worth US$73k. But they sold 36.56k shares for US$81k. Lara Sullivan sold a total of 36.56k shares over the year at an average price of US$2.23. 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!

I will like Pyxis Oncology better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insider Ownership Of Pyxis Oncology

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 6.2% of Pyxis Oncology shares, worth about US$13m. 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 Pyxis Oncology Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Pyxis Oncology insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Pyxis Oncology insiders. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. 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 3 warning signs for Pyxis Oncology (2 are potentially serious) you should be aware of.

Of course Pyxis Oncology 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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