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We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (LON:IHG), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Selling?
It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.
Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year'.
Check out our latest analysis for InterContinental Hotels Group
InterContinental Hotels Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Non-Executive Chairman of the Board Patrick Cescau for UK£202k worth of shares, at about UK£27.21 per share. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of UK£44.94. Because the shares were purchased at a lower price, this particular buy doesn't tell us much about how insiders feel about the current share price.
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!
InterContinental Hotels Group 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. InterContinental Hotels Group insiders own about UK£21m 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 InterContinental Hotels Group Insider Transactions Indicate?
It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded InterContinental Hotels Group shares in the last quarter. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Insiders own shares in InterContinental Hotels Group and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the 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 assist with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of InterContinental Hotels Group.