Have Insiders Been Buying SunOpta Inc. (TSE:SOY) Shares?
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We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we’d be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So before you buy or sell SunOpta Inc. (TSE:SOY), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Buying?
It’s quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.
We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Harvard University study found that ‘insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.’
Check out our latest analysis for SunOpta
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At SunOpta
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by George Miketa for CA$241k worth of shares, at about CA$9.48 per share. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. That purchase may suggest an expectation of positive returns over the long term.
Happily, we note that in the last year insiders bought 83.20k shares for a total of CA$769k. In total, SunOpta insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. They paid about CA$9.24 on average. I’d consider this a positive as it suggests insiders see value at around the current price, which is CA$5.46. The chart below shows insider transactions (by 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!
If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).
Insider Ownership of SunOpta
Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Based on our data, SunOpta insiders have about 1.3% of the stock, worth approximately CA$6.4m. We consider this fairly low insider ownership.
So What Do The SunOpta Insider Transactions Indicate?
It doesn’t really mean much that no insider has traded SunOpta shares in the last quarter. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. The transactions are fine but it’d be more encouraging if SunOpta insiders bought more shares in the company. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for SunOpta.
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.
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.
