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Investors who take an interest in Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) should definitely note that the Independent Director, Barry Fingerhut, recently paid US$33.78 per share to buy US$101k worth of the stock. That's a very decent purchase to our minds and it grew their holding by a solid 17%.
View our latest analysis for Carriage Services
Carriage Services Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
The Founder Melvin Payne made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$871k worth of shares at a price of US$30.02 each. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price, which is US$34.06. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. While we always like to see insider buying, it's less meaningful if the purchases were made at much lower prices, as the opportunity they saw may have passed. The good news for Carriage Services share holders is that insiders were buying at near the current price. We note that Melvin Payne was both the biggest buyer and the biggest seller.
Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$1.4m for 53.98k shares. But insiders sold 30.74k shares worth US$570k. Overall, Carriage Services insiders were net buyers during the last year. They paid about US$25.99 on average. We don't deny that it is nice to see insiders buying stock in the company. But we must note that the investments were made at well below today's share price. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
Carriage Services is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
Insider Ownership
Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that Carriage Services insiders own 9.3% of the company, worth about US$56m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.
So What Do The Carriage Services Insider Transactions Indicate?
It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Carriage Services insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. At Simply Wall St, we've found that Carriage Services has 2 warning signs (1 is a bit concerning!) that deserve your attention before going any further with your analysis.