Advertisement
New Zealand markets open in 6 hours 10 minutes
  • NZX 50

    11,946.43
    +143.15 (+1.21%)
     
  • NZD/USD

    0.5941
    +0.0004 (+0.07%)
     
  • ALL ORDS

    7,937.50
    -0.40 (-0.01%)
     
  • OIL

    82.41
    -0.40 (-0.48%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,344.40
    +6.00 (+0.26%)
     

The President of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A), Michael Medline, Just Bought 8.3% More Shares

Investors who take an interest in Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) should definitely note that the President, Michael Medline, recently paid CA$35.90 per share to buy CA$348k worth of the stock. While that's a very decent purchase to our minds, it was proportionally a bit modest, boosting their holding by just 8.3%.

View our latest analysis for Empire

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Empire

Notably, that recent purchase by Michael Medline is the biggest insider purchase of Empire shares that we've seen in the last year. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price of CA$35.57. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels.

ADVERTISEMENT

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid CA$791k for 21.61k shares. But they sold 834.00 shares for CA$35k. In total, Empire insiders bought more than they sold 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!

insider-trading-volume
insider-trading-volume

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership Of Empire

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. It appears that Empire insiders own 1.0% of the company, worth about CA$89m. 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 Empire Insider Transactions Indicate?

The recent insider purchases are heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. Given that insiders also own a fair bit of Empire we think they are probably pretty confident of a bright future. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

Of course Empire 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.

Join A Paid User Research Session
You’ll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here