We wouldn't blame Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that Lisa Britt, the Chief Human Resources Officer & Senior VP recently netted about US$2.0m selling shares at an average price of US$706. That's a big disposal, and it decreased their holding size by 22%, which is notable but not too bad.
In fact, the recent sale by Lisa Britt was the biggest sale of Thermo Fisher Scientific shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$698. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive).
Lisa Britt divested 5.64k shares over the last 12 months at an average price of US$642. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!
See our latest analysis for Thermo Fisher Scientific
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).
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. Thermo Fisher Scientific insiders own about US$314m worth of shares (which is 0.1% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.
An insider sold Thermo Fisher Scientific shares recently, but they didn't buy any. Looking to the last twelve months, our data doesn't show any insider buying. But since Thermo Fisher Scientific is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. While insiders do own a lot of shares in the company (which is good), our analysis of their transactions doesn't make us feel confident about the company. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. At Simply Wall St, we found 1 warning sign for Thermo Fisher Scientific that deserve your attention before buying any shares.
If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.
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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