It is usually uneventful when a single insider buys stock. However, When quite a few insiders buy shares, as it happened in Sabre Corporation's (NASDAQ:SABR) case, it's fantastic news for shareholders.

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.

Sabre Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by CEO, President & Director Kurt Ekert for US$167k worth of shares, at about US$2.57 per share. Even though the purchase was made at a significantly lower price than the recent price (US$3.26), we still think insider buying is a positive. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$552k for 195.30k shares. But they sold 10.00k shares for US$28k. In total, Sabre insiders bought more than they sold over 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.

Insiders At Sabre Have Bought Stock Recently

It's good to see that Sabre insiders have made notable investments in the company's shares. We can see that Executive VP & Chief Commercial Officer - Travel Solutions Roshan Mendis paid US$59k for shares in the company. No-one sold. That shows some optimism about the company's future.

Insider Ownership Of Sabre

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Sabre insiders own 1.1% of the company, worth about US$14m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Sabre Tell Us?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. However, we note that the company didn't make a profit over the last twelve months, which makes us cautious. Insiders likely see value in Sabre shares, given these transactions (along with notable insider ownership of the company). So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example, Sabre has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is potentially serious) we think you should know about.

But note: Sabre 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 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.