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Over the past year, many Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) insiders sold a significant stake in the company which may have piqued investors' interest. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more beneficial than knowing whether they are selling, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, when multiple insiders sell stock over a specific duration, shareholders should take notice as that could possibly be a red flag.
While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.
See our latest analysis for Duke Energy
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Duke Energy
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Chairman & CEO, Lynn Good, sold US$1.5m worth of shares at a price of US$103 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even below the current price of US$110. As a general rule we consider it to be discouraging when insiders are selling below the current price, because it suggests they were happy with a lower valuation. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. This single sale was just 2.9% of Lynn Good's stake.
In the last year Duke Energy insiders didn't buy any company stock. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) 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 are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of small cap stocks that are not only being bought by insiders but also have attractive valuations.
Duke Energy Insiders Are Selling The Stock
We have seen a bit of insider selling at Duke Energy, over the last three months. insider Louis Renjel divested only US$45k worth of shares in that time. Neither the lack of buying nor the presence of selling is heartening. But the amount sold isn't enough for us to put any weight on it.
Does Duke Energy Boast High Insider Ownership?
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. It's great to see that Duke Energy insiders own 0.1% of the company, worth about US$116m. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.