Yahoo Finance Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) insiders sold US$3.7m worth of stock, possibly signalling a downtrend
Over the past year, many Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) insiders sold a significant stake in the company which may have piqued investors' interest. Knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more helpful when evaluating insider transactions, as insider selling can have various explanations. However, shareholders should take a deeper look if several insiders are selling stock over a specific time period.
While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.
Check out our latest analysis for Crown Castle
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Crown Castle
In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Executive VP & COO of Fiber, Christopher Levendos, sold US$2.1m worth of shares at a price of US$193 per share. 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$146. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 5.91k shares for US$843k. But they sold 19.50k shares for US$3.7m. All up, insiders sold more shares in Crown Castle than they bought, over the last year. The average sell price was around US$190. It is certainly not great to see that insiders have sold shares in the company. However, we do note that the average sale price was significantly higher than the current share price (which is US$146). 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!
I will like Crown Castle better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.
Insider Ownership
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. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Crown Castle insiders own about US$301m worth of shares (which is 0.5% 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.
What Might The Insider Transactions At Crown Castle Tell Us?
There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. It's great to see high levels of insider ownership, but looking back over the last year, we don't gain confidence from the Crown Castle insiders selling. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Crown Castle (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.
Of course Crown Castle may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality companies.
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, but not derivative transactions.
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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.
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