Insiders seem to have made the most of their holdings by selling US$20m worth of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) stock at an average sell price of US$131 during the past year. After the stock price dropped 7.5% last week, the company's market value declined by US$5.3b, but insiders were able to mitigate their losses.

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 Blackstone

Blackstone Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Global Head of Private Equity & Director, Joseph Baratta, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$5.1m worth of shares at a price of US$135 each. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$92.18. 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 22.71k shares worth US$2.5m. But insiders sold 155.02k shares worth US$20m. In total, Blackstone insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

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Insiders At Blackstone Have Bought Stock Recently

At Blackstone,over the last quarter, we have observed quite a lot more insider buying than insider selling. Insiders spent US$328k on shares. But we did see insider Ruth Porat sell shares worth US$59.8. We think insiders may be optimistic about the future, since insiders have been net buyers of shares.

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Blackstone insiders own 0.1% of the company, currently worth about US$157m based on the recent share price. I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.

So What Do The Blackstone Insider Transactions Indicate?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. However, the longer term transactions are not so encouraging. The recent buying by some insiders , along with high insider ownership, suggest that Blackstone insiders are fairly aligned, and optimistic. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Blackstone. While conducting our analysis, we found that Blackstone has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.