Investors who take an interest in Valvoline Inc.( NYSE:VVV ) should definitely note that the Senior VP & CFO, John Willis, recently paid US$31.80 per share to buy US$318k worth of the stock. That's a very solid buy in our book, and increased their holding by a noteworthy 42%.
Valvoline Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
In fact, the recent purchase by Senior VP & CFO John Willis was not their only acquisition of Valvoline shares this year. Earlier in the year, they paid US$39.42 per share in a US$502k purchase. That means that even when the share price was higher than US$32.39 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price.
Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 43.33k shares worth US$1.5m. But insiders sold 4.18k shares worth US$139k. In total, Valvoline insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. The average buy price was around US$34.02. I'd consider this a positive as it suggests insiders see value at around the current price. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
See our latest analysis for Valvoline
There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do notwant to miss this free list of undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.
Insider Ownership Of Valvoline
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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Valvoline insiders own about US$13m worth of shares. That equates to 0.3% of the company. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.
So What Do The Valvoline Insider Transactions Indicate?
It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. Given that insiders also own a fair bit of Valvoline we think they are probably pretty confident of a bright 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. At Simply Wall St, we found 3 warning signs for Valvoline 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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