Many Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV) insiders ditched their stock over the past year, which may be of interest to the company's shareholders. When analyzing insider transactions, it is usually more valuable to know whether insiders are buying versus knowing if they are selling, as the latter sends an ambiguous message. However, if numerous insiders are selling, shareholders should investigate more.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Synovus Financial Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Executive VP & CFO Andrew Gregory bought US$1.1m worth of shares at a price of US$40.03 per share. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of US$45.09. Because it occurred at a lower valuation, it doesn't tell us much about whether insiders might find today's price attractive.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$2.0m for 52.50k shares. But insiders sold 74.36k shares worth US$2.8m. All up, insiders sold more shares in Synovus Financial than they bought, over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

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Synovus Financial Insiders Bought Stock Recently

At Synovus Financial,over the last quarter, we have observed quite a lot more insider buying than insider selling. Insiders spent US$2.0m on shares. On the other hand, insiders netted US$1.7m by selling. We think insiders may be optimistic about the future, since insiders have been net buyers of shares.

Insider Ownership Of Synovus Financial

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that Synovus Financial insiders own 1.3% of the company, worth about US$86m. 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 Synovus Financial Tell Us?

The recent insider purchases are heartening. On the other hand the transaction history, over the last year, isn't so positive. We don't take much heart from transactions by Synovus Financial insiders over the last year. But they own a reasonable amount of the company, and there was some buying recently. Overall they seem reasonably aligned. 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. While conducting our analysis, we found that Synovus Financial has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore these.

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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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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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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