Lockheed Martin Insiders Sell US$11m Of Stock, Possibly Signalling Caution
The fact that multiple Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) insiders offloaded a considerable amount of shares over the past year could have raised some eyebrows amongst investors. When analyzing insider transactions, it is usually more valuable to know whether insiders are buying versus knowing if they are selling, as the latter sends an ambiguous message. However, shareholders should take a deeper look if several insiders are selling stock over a specific time period.
While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we do think it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing.
Check out our latest analysis for Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
The Chief Operating Officer, Frank St. John, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$2.8m worth of shares at a price of US$428 each. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of US$446, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. We note that the biggest single sale was 100% of Frank St. John's holding.
In total, Lockheed Martin insiders sold more than they bought over 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!
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Lockheed Martin Insiders Are Selling The Stock
Over the last three months, we've seen significant insider selling at Lockheed Martin. In total, insiders sold US$9.4m worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any purchases whatsoever. This may suggest that some insiders think that the shares are not cheap.
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. Insiders own 0.07% of Lockheed Martin shares, worth about US$70m. 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 Does This Data Suggest About Lockheed Martin Insiders?
Insiders sold Lockheed Martin shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. But since Lockheed Martin is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. While insiders do own shares, they don't own a heap, and they have been selling. We're in no rush to buy! So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. While conducting our analysis, we found that Lockheed Martin has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore them.
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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.
