It is usually uneventful when a single insider buys stock. However, When quite a few insiders buy shares, as it happened in COSOL Limited's (ASX:COS) case, it's fantastic news for shareholders.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we do think it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing.

View our latest analysis for COSOL

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At COSOL

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Non-Executive Chairman Geoffrey Lewis bought AU$500k worth of shares at a price of AU$0.76 per share. Although we like to see insider buying, we note that this large purchase was at significantly below the recent price of AU$0.99. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid AU$1m for 1.31m shares. But they sold 65.00k shares for AU$50k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by COSOL insiders. 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!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. COSOL insiders own about AU$87m worth of shares (which is 50% of the company). 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 Do The COSOL Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. It would be great to see more insider buying, but overall it seems like COSOL insiders are reasonably well aligned (owning significant chunk of the company's shares) and optimistic for the future. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. For example - COSOL has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.