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Investors who take an interest in Ecovyst Inc. (NYSE:ECVT) should definitely note that the Independent Director, Jonny Ginns, recently paid US$8.91 per share to buy US$365k worth of the stock. That's a very decent purchase to our minds and it grew their holding by a solid 37%.
See our latest analysis for Ecovyst
Ecovyst Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In fact, the recent purchase by Independent Director Jonny Ginns was not their only acquisition of Ecovyst shares this year. They previously made an even bigger purchase of US$498k worth of shares at a price of US$9.46 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being US$9.18). 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. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price.
While Ecovyst insiders bought shares during the last year, they didn't sell. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!
Ecovyst 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 Of Ecovyst
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Ecovyst insiders own 3.3% of the company, worth about US$42m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.
What Might The Insider Transactions At Ecovyst Tell Us?
It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. Given that insiders also own a fair bit of Ecovyst we think they are probably pretty confident of a bright future. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. To help with this, we've discovered 3 warning signs (1 can't be ignored!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Ecovyst.