Insiders At Wells Fargo Sold US$6.0m In Stock, Alluding To Potential Weakness

Many Wells Fargo & Company ( NYSE:WFC ) insiders ditched their stock over the past year, which may be of interest to...

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In This Article: Many Wells Fargo & Company ( NYSE:WFC ) insiders ditched their stock over the past year, which may be of interest to the company's shareholders. Knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more helpful when evaluating insider transactions, as insider selling can have various explanations. However, shareholders should take a deeper look if several insiders are selling stock over a specific time period.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. View our latest analysis for Wells Fargo Wells Fargo Insider Transactions Over The Last Year In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the insider, Ather Williams, sold US$3.8m worth of shares at a price of US$63.



70 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even below the current price of US$80.67.

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 27% of Ather Williams's holding.

Insiders in Wells Fargo didn't buy any shares in the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! 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). Does Wells Fargo Boast High Insider Ownership? Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests.

Wells Fargo insiders own about US$259m worth of shares (which is 0.1% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Wells Fargo Tell Us? There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. It's great to see high levels of insider ownership, but looking back over the last year, we don't gain confidence from the Wells Fargo insiders selling. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Wells Fargo.

Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Wells Fargo you should know about..