Whilst it may not be a huge deal, we thought it was good to see that the DLH Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:DLHC) President, Zachary Parker, recently bought US$78k worth of stock, for US$7.77 per share. Although the purchase is not a big one, increasing their shareholding by only 1.3%, it can be interpreted as a good sign.

DLH Holdings Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the President of Social & Scientific Systems Inc and Public Health & Scientific Research Operating Unit, Jeanine Christian, sold US$338k worth of shares at a price of US$16.21 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$7.67. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Jeanine Christian.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$155k for 20.00k shares. But they sold 24.95k shares for US$405k. Jeanine Christian sold a total of 24.95k shares over the year at an average price of US$16.23. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

I will like DLH Holdings better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insider Ownership Of DLH Holdings

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. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. DLH Holdings insiders own about US$16m worth of shares. That equates to 15% of the company. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Do The DLH Holdings Insider Transactions Indicate?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. But we can't say the same for the transactions over the last 12 months. The more recent transactions are a positive, but DLH Holdings insiders haven't shown the sustained enthusiasm that we look for, although they do own a decent number of shares, overall. In short they are likely aligned with shareholders. While it's good to be aware of what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for DLH Holdings (2 are significant) you should be aware of.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity 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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