We wouldn't blame WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that Sachin Dhawan, the Chief Technology Officer recently netted about US$709k selling shares at an average price of US$183. That's a big disposal, and it decreased their holding size by 26%, which is notable but not too bad.
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At WEX
Notably, that recent sale by Sachin Dhawan is the biggest insider sale of WEX shares that we've seen in the last year. So what is clear is that an insider saw fit to sell at around the current price of US$181. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. We note that this sale took place at around the current price, so it isn't a major concern, though it's hardly a good sign.
Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 2.80k shares worth US$404k. On the other hand they divested 19.87k shares, for US$3.3m. In total, WEX insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!
See our latest analysis for WEX
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Insider Ownership Of WEX
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 1.3% of WEX shares, worth about US$75m. 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 WEX Insider Transactions Indicate?
An insider hasn't bought WEX stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. But since WEX is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. While insiders do own shares, they don't own a heap, and they have been selling. We're in no rush to buy! 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. When we did our research, we found 2 warning signs for WEX (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that we believe deserve your full attention.
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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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