Those following along with PPC Ltd (JSE:PPC) will no doubt be intrigued by the recent purchase of shares by S. Cardarelli, CEO & Executive Director of the company, who spent a stonking R16m on stock at an average price of R7.25. Aside from being a solid chunk in its own right, the deft move also saw their holding increase by some 23%.
Notably, that recent purchase by S. Cardarelli is the biggest insider purchase of PPC shares that we've seen in the last year. That implies that an insider found the current price of R7.56 per share to be enticing. That means they have been optimistic about the company in the past, though they may have changed their mind. If someone buys shares at well below current prices, it's a good sign on balance, but keep in mind they may no longer see value. Happily, the PPC insider decided to buy shares at close to current prices. S. Cardarelli was the only individual insider to buy shares in the last twelve months.
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!
View our latest analysis for PPC
There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Based on our data, PPC insiders have about 0.6% of the stock, worth approximately R71m. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. We prefer to see high levels of insider ownership.
The recent insider purchase is heartening. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest PPC insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. 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 PPC and we suggest you have a look.
But note: PPC 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.