Executive VP and Chief Operating & Safety Officer Of NiSource Sold 55% Of Their Shares

We wouldn't blame NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that William Jefferson, the Executive VP and Chief Operating & Safety Officer recently netted about US$1.8m selling shares at an average price of US$44.56. Probably the most concerning element of the whole transaction is that the disposal amounted to 55% of their entire holding.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At NiSource

In fact, the recent sale by William Jefferson was the biggest sale of NiSource shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. So what is clear is that an insider saw fit to sell at around the current price of US$44.44. 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).

NiSource 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 NiSource

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Insider Ownership Of NiSource

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that NiSource insiders own 0.3% of the company, worth about US$57m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At NiSource Tell Us?

Insiders haven't bought NiSource 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. But since NiSource is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing NiSource. For example, NiSource has 3 warning signs (and 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) we think you should know about.

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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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