Yahoo Finance Should You Take Comfort From Insider Transactions At Tourmaline Oil Corp. (TSE:TOU)?
We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we’d be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So we’ll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Tourmaline Oil Corp. (TSE:TOU).
What Is Insider Selling?
Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock on the market. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.
Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Harvard University study found that ‘insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.’
See our latest analysis for Tourmaline Oil
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Tourmaline Oil
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by William Kirker for CA$1.3m worth of shares, at about CA$25.19 per share. Although we don’t gain confidence from insider selling, we note that this large sale was at well above current price of CA$16.22. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 255.40k shares for CA$5.1m. But insiders sold 106.72k shares worth CA$2.4m. In total, Tourmaline Oil insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. Their average price was about CA$19.97. This is nice to see since it implies that insiders might see value around current prices (around CA$16.22). You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions 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!
Tourmaline Oil is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
Insiders at Tourmaline Oil Have Bought Stock Recently
Over the last three months, we’ve seen significantly more insider buying, than insider selling, at Tourmaline Oil. 6 insiders bought CA$2.6m worth of shares. But Independent Director John Elick sold shares worth CA$90k. The buying outweighs the selling, which suggests that insiders may believe the company will do well in the future.
Insider Ownership of Tourmaline Oil
For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Tourmaline Oil insiders own 8.1% of the company, currently worth about CA$370m 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.
So What Do The Tourmaline Oil Insider Transactions Indicate?
The recent insider purchases are heartening. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Tourmaline Oil insiders are well aligned, and quite possibly think the share price is too low. Looks promising! If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.
But note: Tourmaline Oil may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
