Yahoo Finance Who Has Been Selling Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) Shares?
It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.
What Is Insider Buying?
It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.
Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.'
View our latest analysis for Intuitive Surgical
Intuitive Surgical Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Chairman, Lonnie Smith, for US$122k worth of shares, at about US$540 per share. So what is clear is that an insider saw fit to sell at around the current price of US$497. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive). Lonnie Smith was the only individual insider to sell over the last year.
Lonnie Smith sold a total of 877 shares over the year at an average price of US$518. You can see the insider transactions (by 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!
For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
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. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Intuitive Surgical insiders own about US$535m worth of shares (which is 0.9% 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 Do The Intuitive Surgical Insider Transactions Indicate?
An insider sold Intuitive Surgical shares recently, but they didn't buy any. Looking to the last twelve months, our data doesn't show any insider buying. But it is good to see that Intuitive Surgical is growing earnings. It is good to see high insider ownership, but the insider selling leaves us cautious. 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, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting 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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If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
