Have Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) Insiders Been Selling Their Stock?

Some Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Chairman & CEO, Michael Huseby, recently sold a substantial US$604k worth of stock at a price of US$8.33 per share. That's a big disposal, and it decreased their holding size by 13%, which is notable but not too bad.

Check out our latest analysis for Barnes & Noble Education

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Barnes & Noble Education

Notably, that recent sale by Michael Huseby is the biggest insider sale of Barnes & Noble Education shares that we've seen in the last year. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$7.78. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive).

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 189.28k shares for US$497k. But insiders sold 112.28k shares worth US$816k. All up, insiders sold more shares in Barnes & Noble Education than they bought, over the last year. They sold for an average price of about US$7.27. It's not too encouraging to see that insiders have sold at below the current price. Since insiders sell for many reasons, we wouldn't put too much weight on it. 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!

If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Barnes & Noble Education insiders own about US$88m worth of shares. That equates to 20% of the company. 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 Barnes & Noble Education Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders haven't bought Barnes & Noble Education stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. Insider ownership isn't particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. While we like knowing 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. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Barnes & Noble Education (1 is significant) you should be aware of.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity 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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