Those following along with Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) will no doubt be intrigued by the recent purchase of shares by Kevin Conroy, Chairman of The Board & CEO of the company, who spent a stonking US$1.0m on stock at an average price of US$51.35. While that only increased their holding size by 2.7%, it is still a big swing by our standards.

See our latest analysis for Exact Sciences

Exact Sciences Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent purchase by Kevin Conroy is the biggest insider purchase of Exact Sciences 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$49.33). Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when an insider has purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. Kevin Conroy was the only individual insider to buy during the last year.

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.

Does Exact Sciences Boast High 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. Insiders own 0.7% of Exact Sciences shares, worth about US$63m. 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 Exact Sciences Tell Us?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. But we don't feel the same about the fact the company is making losses. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Exact Sciences 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 Exact Sciences. To assist with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Exact Sciences.

Of course Exact Sciences may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality 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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