This Insider Has Just Sold Shares In Novanta

We wouldn't blame Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that Matthijs Glastra, the CEO & Chairman of the Board recently netted about US$1.3m selling shares at an average price of US$180. However, that sale only accounted for 5.6% of their holding, so arguably it doesn't say much about their conviction.

See our latest analysis for Novanta

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Novanta

Notably, that recent sale by Matthijs Glastra is the biggest insider sale of Novanta shares that we've seen in the last year. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$170. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place 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).

You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

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Insider Ownership Of Novanta

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Novanta insiders own about US$55m worth of shares. That equates to 0.9% of the company. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Do The Novanta Insider Transactions Indicate?

An insider sold Novanta shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And there weren't any purchases to give us comfort, over the last year. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. While conducting our analysis, we found that Novanta has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore these.

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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.