It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Middle Island Resources Limited (ASX:MDI).

What Is Insider Buying?

It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

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. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.

View our latest analysis for Middle Island Resources

Middle Island Resources Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when MD & Director Richard Yeates bought AU$98k worth of shares at a price of AU$0.004 per share. Even though the purchase was made at a significantly lower price than the recent price (AU$0.005), we still think insider buying is a positive. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

Middle Island Resources insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn't sell any. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Middle Island Resources 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 Middle Island Resources

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It appears that Middle Island Resources insiders own 20% of the company, worth about AU$1.2m. 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 Middle Island Resources Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Middle Island Resources insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Overall we don't see anything to make us think Middle Island Resources insiders are doubting the company, and they do own shares. I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow for free.