Over the past year, many West African Resources Limited (ASX:WAF) insiders sold a significant stake in the company which may have piqued investors' interest. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more beneficial than knowing whether they are selling, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, if numerous insiders are selling, shareholders should investigate more.

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

View our latest analysis for West African Resources

West African Resources Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Founder, Richard Hyde, for AU$2.6m worth of shares, at about AU$1.31 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (AU$1.67). 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. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. It is worth noting that this sale was only 11% of Richard Hyde's holding.

West African Resources insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: Most of them are flying under the radar).

Insider Ownership Of West African Resources

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. West African Resources insiders own about AU$93m worth of shares. That equates to 4.9% 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 West African Resources Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no West African Resources insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by West African Resources insiders. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for West African Resources you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting 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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