Wouter Latour Is The Chairman of Vaxart, Inc. (NASDAQ:VXRT) And They Just Sold 100% Of Their Shares

We wouldn't blame Vaxart, Inc. (NASDAQ:VXRT) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that Wouter Latour, the Chairman recently netted about US$2.1m selling shares at an average price of US$6.32. That diminished their holding by a very significant 100%, which arguably implies a strong desire to reallocate capital.

View our latest analysis for Vaxart

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Vaxart

In fact, the recent sale by Wouter Latour was the biggest sale of Vaxart shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that an insider was selling shares at below the current price (US$6.40). As a general rule we consider it to be discouraging when insiders are selling below the current price, because it suggests they were happy with a lower valuation. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. It is worth noting that this sale was 100% of Wouter Latour's holding.

In the last year Vaxart insiders didn't buy any company stock. 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 Vaxart better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insider Ownership

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. From our data, it seems that Vaxart insiders own 0.9% of the company, worth about US$6.4m. We do generally prefer see higher levels of insider ownership.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Vaxart Tell Us?

An insider sold Vaxart shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And even if we look at the last year, we didn't see any purchases. When you combine this with the relatively low insider ownership, we are very cautious about the stock. We'd certainly practice some caution before buying! So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Vaxart you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant.

But note: Vaxart 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, but not derivative transactions.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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