American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AAT) shareholders (or potential shareholders) will be happy to see that the Chairman & CEO, Ernest Rady, recently bought a whopping US$1.1m worth of stock, at a price of US$36.76. While that only increased their holding size by 0.4%, it is still a big swing by our standards.

Check out our latest analysis for American Assets Trust

American Assets Trust Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent purchase by Chairman & CEO Ernest Rady was not the only time they bought American Assets Trust shares this year. They previously made an even bigger purchase of US$1.9m worth of shares at a price of US$35.37 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price, which is US$37.93. Of course they may have changed their mind. But this suggests they are optimistic. 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. Happily, the American Assets Trust insider decided to buy shares at close to current prices. Ernest Rady was the only individual insider to buy during the last year.

Ernest Rady bought 287.69k shares over the last 12 months at an average price of US$32.92. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

American Assets Trust is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Insider Ownership

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. American Assets Trust insiders own about US$301m worth of shares (which is 10% 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 American Assets Trust Insider Transactions Indicate?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. Along with the high insider ownership, this analysis suggests that insiders are quite bullish about American Assets Trust. That's what I like to see! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing American Assets Trust. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with American Assets Trust (including 1 which is significant).