By selling US$81k worth of Pyxis Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYXS) stock at an average sell price of US$2.23 over the last year, insiders seemed to have made the most of their holdings. The company's market valuation decreased by US$50m after the stock price dropped 22% over the past week, but insiders were spared from painful losses.
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.
Pyxis Oncology Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the CEO, President & Director, Lara Sullivan, for US$63k worth of shares, at about US$2.27 per share. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of US$3.99, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. 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 2.3% of Lara Sullivan's holding. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Lara Sullivan.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 41.43k shares for US$73k. But insiders sold 36.56k shares worth US$81k. Lara Sullivan ditched 36.56k shares over the year. The average price per share was US$2.23. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.
Does Pyxis Oncology Boast High Insider Ownership?
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 5.9% of Pyxis Oncology shares, worth about US$10m. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.
What Might The Insider Transactions At Pyxis Oncology Tell Us?
It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded Pyxis Oncology shares in the last quarter. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Pyxis Oncology insiders. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example, Pyxis Oncology has 5 warning signs (and 3 which make us uncomfortable) we think you should know about.
But note: Pyxis Oncology may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.
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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