Insider Stock Buying Reaches US$22.5m On Barrick Gold

Quite a few insiders have dramatically grown their holdings in Barrick Gold Corporation (TSE:ABX) over the past 12 months. An insider’s optimism about the company’s prospects is a positive sign.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Check out our latest analysis for Barrick Gold

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Barrick Gold

The President, Dennis Bristow, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for CA$4.9m worth of shares at a price of CA$23.15 each. That means that an insider was selling shares at below the current price (CA$23.37). We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. Please do note, however, that sellers may have a variety of reasons for selling, so we don’t know for sure what they think of the stock price. It is worth noting that this sale was only 3.4% of Dennis Bristow’s holding. Notably Dennis Bristow was also the biggest buyer, having purchased CA$23m worth of shares.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid CA$23m for 1.02m shares. But they sold 478.12k shares for CA$11m. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Barrick Gold insiders. 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!

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.

Barrick Gold Insiders Bought Stock Recently

At Barrick Gold,over the last quarter, we have observed quite a lot more insider buying than insider selling. Insiders spent CA$8.2m on shares. But we did see insider selling worth CA$3.3m. We think insiders may be optimistic about the future, since insiders have been net buyers of shares.

Does Barrick Gold Boast High Insider Ownership?

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It’s great to see that Barrick Gold insiders own 0.7% of the company, worth about CA$272m. 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 Barrick Gold Insiders?

The recent insider purchases are heartening. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. Once you factor in the high insider ownership, it certainly seems like insiders are positive about Barrick Gold. One for the watchlist, at least! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it’s beneficial to identify the risks facing Barrick Gold. Every company has risks, and we’ve spotted 3 warning signs for Barrick Gold (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about.

Of course Barrick Gold 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 of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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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.