With Universal Display Corporation's (NASDAQ:OLED)) price down 5.2% this week, insiders might find some solace having sold US$10m worth of shares earlier this year.

Insiders at Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:OLED) sold US$10m worth of stock at an average price of US$205 a share over the past year, making the most of their investment. After the stock price dropped 5.2% last week, the company's market value declined by US$386m, but insiders were able to mitigate their losses.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

View our latest analysis for Universal Display

Universal Display Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Independent Director, Lawrence Lacerte, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$5.2m worth of shares at a price of US$209 each. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. The silver lining is that this sell-down took place above the latest price (US$145). So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

In the last year Universal Display insiders didn't buy any company stock. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

I will like Universal Display 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

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. Universal Display insiders own 7.6% of the company, currently worth about US$532m based on the recent share price. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

So What Do The Universal Display Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. It's great to see high levels of insider ownership, but looking back over the last year, we don't gain confidence from the Universal Display insiders selling. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Universal Display. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for Universal Display and we suggest you have a look.

Of course Universal Display 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, but not derivative transactions.

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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.