How Much Are Northwest Pipe Company (NASDAQ:NWPX) Insiders Taking Off The Table?
Want to help shape the future of investing tools? Participate in a short research study and receive a subscription valued at $60.
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 shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Northwest Pipe Company (NASDAQ:NWPX).
What Is Insider Buying?
It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. 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 logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Columbia University study found that ‘insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own company’s stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers’.
View our latest analysis for Northwest Pipe
Northwest Pipe Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when Chairman Richard Roman sold US$218k worth of shares at a price of US$23.04 per share. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$23.04. They could have a variety of motivations for selling, but it’s still not particularly encouraging to see. We generally tread carefully if insiders have been selling on market, even if they sold slightly above the current price. Richard Roman was the only individual insider to sell over the last year.
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).
Does Northwest Pipe Boast High 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. From our data, it seems that Northwest Pipe insiders own 2.8% of the company, worth about US$6.4m. We do generally prefer see higher levels of insider ownership.
So What Do The Northwest Pipe Insider Transactions Indicate?
An insider hasn’t bought Northwest Pipe stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn’t bring confidence, either. But since Northwest Pipe is profitable and growing, we’re not too worried by this. When you consider that most companies have higher levels of insider ownership, we’re a little wary. So we’re not rushing to buy, to say the least. Of course, the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in Northwest Pipe, you should check out this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.
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.
