President Anthony Capuano Sold A Bunch Of Shares In Marriott International

Some Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the President, Anthony Capuano, recently sold a substantial US$22m worth of stock at a price of US$420 per share. That's a big disposal, and it decreased their holding size by 50%, which is notable but not too bad.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Marriott International

In fact, the recent sale by President Anthony Capuano was not their only sale of Marriott International shares this year. They previously made an even bigger sale of -US$23m worth of shares at a price of US$360 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (US$425). 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. Please do note, however, that sellers may have a variety of reasons for selling, so we don't know for sure what they think of the stock price. We note that the biggest single sale was only 35% of Anthony Capuano's holding.

Marriott International 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!

View our latest analysis for Marriott International

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Insider Ownership

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Marriott International insiders own 9.2% of the company, currently worth about US$10b based on the recent share price. 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 Marriott International Tell Us?

Insiders haven't bought Marriott International stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. And even if we look at the last year, we didn't see any purchases. But it is good to see that Marriott International is growing earnings. It is good to see high insider ownership, but the insider selling leaves us cautious. While it's good to be aware of what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Marriott International 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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