Ever Sunshine Services Group Limited (HKG:1995) insiders who bought shares over the past year were rewarded handsomely last week. The stock rose 14%, resulting in a HK$468m rise in the company's market capitalisation, translating to a gain of 72% on their initial investment. As a result, the stock they originally bought for CN¥10.6m is now worth CN¥18.2m.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

Ever Sunshine Services Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by President Hongbin Zhou for HK$3.4m worth of shares, at about HK$1.36 per share. Although we like to see insider buying, we note that this large purchase was at significantly below the recent price of HK$2.18. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

Ever Sunshine Services Group insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn't sell any. 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 always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. If investing in lesser known companies is your style, you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Ever Sunshine Services Group insiders own about HK$389m worth of shares. That equates to 10% of the company. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Ever Sunshine Services Group Tell Us?

The fact that there have been no Ever Sunshine Services Group insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. It would be great to see more insider buying, but overall it seems like Ever Sunshine Services Group insiders are reasonably well aligned (owning significant chunk of the company's shares) and optimistic for the future. While we like knowing 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. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for Ever Sunshine Services Group and we suggest you have a look.

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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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.