The Senior Vice President of Human Resources of Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV), Michael Loeffel, Just Bought 12% More Shares

Whilst it may not be a huge deal, we thought it was good to see that the Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Michael Loeffel, recently bought US$52k worth of stock, for US$20.89 per share. While we're hesitant to get too excited about a purchase of that size, we do note it increased their holding by a solid 12%.

Check out our latest analysis for Carriage Services

Carriage Services Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Founder, Melvin Payne, sold US$384k worth of shares at a price of US$14.97 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to take some cash off the table, even below the current price of US$21.02. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. While insider selling is not a positive sign, we can't be sure if it does mean insiders think the shares are fully valued, so it's only a weak sign. This single sale was just 2.0% of Melvin Payne's stake.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 37.43k shares for US$776k. But they sold 29.74k shares for US$483k. In total, Carriage Services insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. Their average price was about US$20.74. Although they bought at below the recent share price, it is good to see that insiders are willing to invest in the company. 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!

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There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

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. It appears that Carriage Services insiders own 9.2% of the company, worth about US$35m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Carriage Services Tell Us?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Carriage Services 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 Carriage Services. When we did our research, we found 4 warning signs for Carriage Services (1 is significant!) that we believe deserve your full attention.

Of course Carriage Services 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, but not derivative transactions.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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