Who Has Been Buying Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AGIO) Shares?

We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AGIO), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

Do Insider Transactions Matter?

It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.

Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own company’s stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'.

View our latest analysis for Agios Pharmaceuticals

Agios Pharmaceuticals Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The CEO & Director Jacqualyn Fouse made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$1.2m worth of shares at a price of US$31.00 each. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of US$40.08. Because it occurred at a lower valuation, it doesn't tell us much about whether insiders might find today's price attractive.

While Agios Pharmaceuticals insiders bought shares during the last year, they didn't sell. 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 growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership of Agios Pharmaceuticals

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 1.0% of Agios Pharmaceuticals shares, worth about US$28m. 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 Agios Pharmaceuticals Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders do have a stake in Agios Pharmaceuticals and their transactions don't cause us concern. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Agios Pharmaceuticals. You'd be interested to know, that we found 3 warning signs for Agios Pharmaceuticals and we suggest you have a look.

But note: Agios Pharmaceuticals 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, 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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