In the last year, multiple insiders have substantially increased their holdings of Lightspeed Commerce Inc. (TSE:LSPD) stock, indicating that insiders' optimism about the company's prospects has increased.
Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we do think it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing.
View our latest analysis for Lightspeed Commerce
The Founder Dax Dasilva made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for CA$26m worth of shares at a price of CA$20.85 each. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at around the current price of CA$21.92. Of course they may have changed their mind. But this suggests they are optimistic. While we always like to see insider buying, it's less meaningful if the purchases were made at much lower prices, as the opportunity they saw may have passed. Happily, the Lightspeed Commerce insiders decided to buy shares at close to current prices. Notably Dax Dasilva was also the biggest seller.
Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid CA$26m for 1.27m shares. On the other hand they divested 1.26m shares, for CA$26m. Overall, Lightspeed Commerce insiders were net buyers 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.
Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Lightspeed Commerce insiders own 9.5% of the company, currently worth about CA$316m based on the recent share price. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.
The fact that there have been no Lightspeed Commerce insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. It would be great to see more insider buying, but overall it seems like Lightspeed Commerce insiders are reasonably well aligned (owning significant chunk of the company's shares) and optimistic for the future. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Lightspeed Commerce. At Simply Wall St, we found 1 warning sign for Lightspeed Commerce that deserve your attention before buying any shares.