Insider Buying: The Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EPRT) Interim CFO & Director Just Bought US$354k Worth Of Shares

Potential Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EPRT) shareholders may wish to note that the Interim CFO & Director, Anthony Dobkin, recently bought US$354k worth of stock, paying US$8.85 for each share. That's a very decent purchase to our minds and it grew their holding by a solid 48%.

See our latest analysis for Essential Properties Realty Trust

Essential Properties Realty Trust Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the President, Peter Mavoides, for US$870k worth of shares, at about US$19.82 per share. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$12.69. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 47.10k shares worth US$497k. On the other hand they divested 71301 shares, for US$1.4m. Over the last year we saw more insider selling of Essential Properties Realty Trust shares, than buying. The sellers received a price of around US$19.81, on average. Insider selling doesn't make us excited to buy. But the selling was at much higher prices than the current share price (US$12.69), so it probably doesn't tell us a lot about the value on offer today. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

I will like Essential Properties Realty Trust 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. It appears that Essential Properties Realty Trust insiders own 1.0% of the company, worth about US$10m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Essential Properties Realty Trust Tell Us?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. On the other hand the transaction history, over the last year, isn't so positive. While recent transactions indicate confidence in Essential Properties Realty Trust, insiders don't own enough of the company to overcome our cautiousness about the longer term transactions. So they seem pretty well aligned, overall. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Essential Properties Realty Trust. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Essential Properties Realty Trust (including 1 which doesn't sit too well with us).

But note: Essential Properties Realty Trust 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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