Selling ASGN Shares at a Lower Price Than Current Market Value May Have Been a Costly Mistake for Insiders

Despite the fact that ASGN Incorporated's (NYSE:ASGN) value has dropped 10% in the last week insiders who sold US$13m worth of stock in the past 12 months have had less success. Given that the average selling price of US$95.89 is still lower than the current share price, insiders would probably have been better off keeping their shares.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

See our latest analysis for ASGN

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At ASGN

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Independent Director, Edwin Sheridan, sold US$7.5m worth of shares at a price of US$104 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$85.15. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

Insiders in ASGN didn't buy any shares in the last year. 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 ASGN 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

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. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. ASGN insiders own 3.4% of the company, currently worth about US$129m based on the recent share price. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.

So What Do The ASGN Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no ASGN insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. While we feel good about high insider ownership of ASGN, we can't say the same about the selling of shares. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing ASGN. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for ASGN and we suggest you have a look.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting 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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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.