Potential Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) shareholders may wish to note that the President, Jeffrey Simmons, recently bought US$436k worth of stock, paying US$14.54 for each share. Although the purchase only increased their holding by 5.0%, it is still a solid purchase in our view.

Check out our latest analysis for Elanco Animal Health

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Elanco Animal Health

Notably, that recent purchase by Jeffrey Simmons is the biggest insider purchase of Elanco Animal Health shares that we've seen in the last year. That implies that an insider found the current price of US$15.00 per share to be enticing. 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 Elanco Animal Health share holders is that insiders were buying at near the current price.

In the last twelve months Elanco Animal Health insiders were buying shares, but not selling. They paid about US$19.84 on average. This is nice to see since it implies that insiders might see value around current prices. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Does Elanco Animal Health 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. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Elanco Animal Health insiders own about US$22m worth of shares. That equates to 0.3% of the company. 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 Elanco Animal Health Insider Transactions Indicate?

The recent insider purchases are heartening. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. But on the other hand, the company made a loss during the last year, which makes us a little cautious. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Elanco Animal Health insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. Therefore, you should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for Elanco Animal Health.