Potential PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:PMT) shareholders may wish to note that the Chairman of the Board & CEO, David Spector, recently bought US$274k worth of stock, paying US$13.71 for each share. That's a very decent purchase to our minds and it grew their holding by a solid 12%.

Check out our latest analysis for PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent purchase by David Spector is the biggest insider purchase of PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust shares that we've seen in the last year. That implies that an insider found the current price of US$14.86 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. In this case we're pleased to report that the insider purchases were made at close to current prices.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 35.65k shares for US$509k. But insiders sold 2.25k shares worth US$45k. In total, PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. 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!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Does PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust 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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust insiders own 1.0% of the company, worth about US$14m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust Tell Us?

It is good 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. Insiders likely see value in PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust shares, given these transactions (along with notable insider ownership of the company). 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. Be aware that PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those can't be ignored...