We’ve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Thenow comics green hornet flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell

Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V.

(

AMS:AD

), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

What Is Insider Selling?

It’s quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

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. For example, a Harvard University

study

found that ‘insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.’

Check out our latest analysis for Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize

Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

CFO & Member of Management Board Jeffrey Carr made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for €1.1m worth of shares at a price of €19.75 each. That implies that an insider found the current (approximate) price enticing. That means they have been optimistic about the company in the past, though they may have changed their mind. Nonetheless, we consider it positive if insiders want to buy at around the current share price. Jeffrey Carr was the only individual insider to buy over the year. Notably Jeffrey Carr was also the biggest seller, having sold €389k worth of shares.

You can see the insider transactions over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

ENXTAM:AD Insider Trading January 1st 19

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this

free

list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Does Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize Boast High Insider Ownership?

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize insiders own 0.2% of the company, currently worth about €61m based on the recent share price. I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize Insiders?

The fact that there have been no Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize insider transactions recently certainly doesn’t bother us. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. Overall we don’t see anything to make us think Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize insiders are doubting the company, and they do own shares. Of course,

the future is what matters most

. So if you are interested in Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize, you should check out this

free

report on analyst forecasts for the company

.

Story continues

Of course,

you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.

So take a peek at this

free

list of interesting companies.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at

[email protected]

.

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