United Overseas Bank Limited (SGX:U11) shareholders (or potential shareholders) will be happy to see that the Deputy Chairman & CEO, Ee Cheong Wee, recently bought a whopping S$7.7m worth of stock, at a price of S$38.65. While that only increased their holding size by 0.4%, it is still a big swing by our standards.
View our latest analysis for United Overseas Bank
Notably, that recent purchase by Ee Cheong Wee is the biggest insider purchase of United Overseas Bank shares that we've seen in the last year. That means that even when the share price was higher than S$38.38 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. It is encouraging to see an insider paid above the current price for shares, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels. Ee Cheong Wee was the only individual insider to buy during the last year.
Ee Cheong Wee purchased 300.00k shares over the year. The average price per share was S$35.26. 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!
SGX:U11 Insider Trading Volume February 21st 2025
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).
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It's great to see that United Overseas Bank insiders own 5.7% of the company, worth about S$3.6b. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.
The recent insider purchase is heartening. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. Along with the high insider ownership, this analysis suggests that insiders are quite bullish about United Overseas Bank. One for the watchlist, at least! 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. To assist with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of United Overseas Bank.
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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