We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALPN).
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, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.
We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. 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'.
See our latest analysis for Alpine Immune Sciences
Alpine Immune Sciences Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Independent Director Robert Conway bought US$80k worth of shares at a price of US$8.03 per share. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of US$14.57. 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.
You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
Alpine Immune Sciences is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.
Insider Ownership of Alpine Immune Sciences
For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. From looking at our data, insiders own US$2.0m worth of Alpine Immune Sciences stock, about 0.6% of the company. We prefer to see high levels of insider ownership.
What Might The Insider Transactions At Alpine Immune Sciences Tell Us?
It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. However, we note that the company didn't make a profit over the last twelve months, which makes us cautious. On this analysis the only slight negative we see is the fairly low (overall) insider ownership; their transactions suggest that they are quite positive on Alpine Immune Sciences stock. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. To help with this, we've discovered 5 warning signs (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Alpine Immune Sciences.