ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE:ACCO) Insiders Have Been Selling
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We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE:ACCO), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Buying?
It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.
We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. As Peter Lynch said, ‘insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.’
See our latest analysis for ACCO Brands
ACCO Brands Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when Executive VP & President of ACCO Brands North America Thomas Tedford sold US$1.0m worth of shares at a price of US$13.36 per share. Although we don’t gain confidence from insider selling, we note that this large sale was at well above current price of US$8.93. 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 19.65k shares worth US$156k. But they sold 178.98k for US$2.4m. All up, insiders sold more shares in ACCO Brands than they bought, over the last year. The sellers received a price of around US$13.38, on average. We are not joyful about insider selling. However, we do note that the average sale price was significantly higher than the current share price (which is US$8.93). You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
I will like ACCO Brands 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 of ACCO Brands
Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 2.5% of ACCO Brands shares, worth about US$23m. 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 ACCO Brands Insider Transactions Indicate?
The fact that there have been no ACCO Brands insider transactions recently certainly doesn’t bother us. We don’t take much encouragement from the transactions by ACCO Brands insiders. But it’s good to see that insiders own shares in the company. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.
But note: ACCO Brands 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.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
