James Burke Buys Handful Of Shares In Vistra
Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) shareholders (or potential shareholders) will be happy to see that the President, James Burke, recently bought a whopping US$903k worth of stock, at a price of US$135. While that only increased their holding size by 0.5%, it is still a big swing by our standards.
Vistra Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
The Executive VP, Stephanie Moore, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$1.4m worth of shares at a price of US$173 each. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$152. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.
All up, insiders sold more shares in Vistra than they bought, over the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!
Check out our latest analysis for Vistra
I will like Vistra better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.
Insider Ownership Of Vistra
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Vistra insiders own about US$552m worth of shares (which is 1.1% 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.
So What Does This Data Suggest About Vistra Insiders?
It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. But we can't say the same for the transactions over the last 12 months. Overall, we'd prefer see a more sustained buying from directors, but with a significant insider holding and more recent purchases, Vistra insiders are reasonably well aligned, and optimistic for the future. 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. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for Vistra and we suggest you have a look.
But note: Vistra 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.
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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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.