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Many Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) insiders ditched their stock over the past year, which may be of interest to the company's shareholders. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more beneficial than knowing whether they are selling, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, when multiple insiders sell stock over a specific duration, shareholders should take notice as that could possibly be a red flag.
While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we do think it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing.
Vistra Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Executive VP, Stephanie Moore, sold US$6.2m worth of shares at a price of US$162 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$137. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 1.84k shares for US$220k. But insiders sold 141.13k shares worth US$18m. All up, insiders sold more shares in Vistra than they bought, over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!
View our latest analysis for Vistra
If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: Most of them are flying under the radar).
Insiders At Vistra Have Sold Stock Recently
There was substantially more insider selling, than buying, of Vistra shares over the last three months. In total, Independent Director Paul Barbas sold US$6.0m worth of shares in that time. Meanwhile Independent Director John Pitesa bought US$190k worth. The share price has moved a bit recently, but it's hard to argue that the selling is a positive.
Insider Ownership
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. Vistra insiders own 1.0% of the company, currently worth about US$445m based on the recent share price. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.