Some SLB N.V. (NYSE:SLB) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, Dianne Ralston, recently sold a substantial US$1.1m worth of stock at a price of US$53.57 per share. However, it's crucial to note that they remain very much invested in the stock and that sale only reduced their holding by 9.3%.
SLB Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
The Executive VP & CFO, Stephane Biguet, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$3.0m worth of shares at a price of US$49.70 each. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even below the current price of US$52.13. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. This single sale was just 28% of Stephane Biguet's stake.
SLB insiders didn't buy any shares 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!
See our latest analysis for SLB
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Insider Ownership
Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It's great to see that SLB insiders own 0.2% of the company, worth about US$147m. I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.
What Might The Insider Transactions At SLB Tell Us?
Insiders haven't bought SLB stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Looking to the last twelve months, our data doesn't show any insider buying. The company boasts high insider ownership, but we're a little hesitant, given the history of share sales. 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. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for SLB and we suggest you have a look.
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For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.
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