Some Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the President, James Zallie, recently sold a substantial US$1.4m worth of stock at a price of US$126 per share. That's a big disposal, and it decreased their holding size by 12%, which is notable but not too bad.

See our latest analysis for Ingredion

Ingredion Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent sale by President James Zallie was not their only sale of Ingredion shares this year. They previously made an even bigger sale of -US$6.4m worth of shares at a price of US$117 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even below the current price of US$128. As a general rule we consider it to be discouraging when insiders are selling below the current price, because it suggests they were happy with a lower valuation. Please do note, however, that sellers may have a variety of reasons for selling, so we don't know for sure what they think of the stock price. It is worth noting that this sale was only 30% of James Zallie's holding.

Insiders in Ingredion didn't buy any shares in the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

I will like Ingredion 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 Ingredion

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It appears that Ingredion insiders own 0.5% of the company, worth about US$41m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Do The Ingredion Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders sold Ingredion shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And there weren't any purchases to give us comfort, over the last year. On the plus side, Ingredion makes money, and is growing profits. While insiders do own shares, they don't own a heap, and they have been selling. We're in no rush to buy! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Ingredion. For example - Ingredion has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

But note: Ingredion 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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