Read This Before Selling Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA) Shares
We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Selling?
It’s quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.
Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Colombia 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’.
Check out our latest analysis for Genocea Biosciences
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Genocea Biosciences
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Chairman of Scientific Advisory Board & Executive Director George Siber for US$100k worth of shares, at about US$0.62 per share. So it’s clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. We generally consider it a positive if insiders have been buying on market, even above the current price.
Happily, we note that in the last year insiders bought 198.40k shares for a total of US$126k. Overall, Genocea Biosciences insiders were net buyers last year. The average buy price was around US$0.63. I’d consider this a positive as it suggests insiders see value at around the current price, which is US$0.56. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions over the last 12 months, below. 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).
Genocea Biosciences Insiders Bought Stock Recently
It’s good to see that Genocea Biosciences insiders have made notable investments in the company’s shares. Overall, 2 insiders shelled out US$106k for shares in the company — and none sold. That shows some optimism about the company’s future.
Insider Ownership
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. It’s great to see that Genocea Biosciences insiders own 0.4% of the company, worth about US$224k. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.
So What Does This Data Suggest About Genocea Biosciences Insiders?
The recent insider purchases are heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. But on the other hand, the company made a loss last year, which makes us a little cautious. While the overall levels of insider ownership are below what we’d like to see, the history of transactions imply that Genocea Biosciences insiders are reasonably well aligned, and optimistic for the future. 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.
Of course Genocea Biosciences may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality 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.
