Potential Westrock Coffee Company (NASDAQ:WEST) shareholders may wish to note that the Group President?Operations of Westrock Beverage Solutions, William Ford, recently bought US$189k worth of stock, paying US$7.54 for each share. While that's a very decent purchase to our minds, it was proportionally a bit modest, boosting their holding by just 5.5%.

See our latest analysis for Westrock Coffee

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Westrock Coffee

Notably, that recent purchase by William Ford is the biggest insider purchase of Westrock Coffee shares that we've seen in the last year. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being US$6.66). Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 98.09k shares worth US$829k. But insiders sold 28.72k shares worth US$221k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Westrock Coffee insiders. Their average price was about US$8.45. This is nice to see since it implies that insiders might see value around current prices. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. 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 undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership

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. Westrock Coffee insiders own about US$100m worth of shares. That equates to 16% 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 Westrock Coffee Tell Us?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. But we don't feel the same about the fact the company is making losses. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Westrock Coffee insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Westrock Coffee. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Westrock Coffee you should know about.

But note: Westrock Coffee 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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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.