We'd be surprised if Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (NYSE:AGM) shareholders haven't noticed that the Independent Director, Sara Faivre-Davis, recently sold US$386k worth of stock at US$188 per share. The eyebrow raising move amounted to a reduction of 42% in their holding.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent sale by Sara Faivre-Davis is the biggest insider sale of Federal Agricultural Mortgage shares that we've seen in the last year. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$184. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. We note that this sale took place at around the current price, so it isn't a major concern, though it's hardly a good sign.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 739.42 shares for US$97k. On the other hand they divested 3.93k shares, for US$736k. All up, insiders sold more shares in Federal Agricultural Mortgage than they bought, over the last year. The average sell price was around US$187. It's not particularly great to see insiders were selling shares at below recent prices. Since insiders sell for many reasons, we wouldn't put too much weight on it. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

I will like Federal Agricultural Mortgage better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Does Federal Agricultural Mortgage Boast High Insider Ownership?

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. Insiders own 1.5% of Federal Agricultural Mortgage shares, worth about US$29m. 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 Federal Agricultural Mortgage Tell Us?

The insider sales have outweighed the insider buying, at Federal Agricultural Mortgage, in the last three months. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. But since Federal Agricultural Mortgage is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. While insiders do own shares, they don't own a heap, and they have been selling. We're in no rush to buy! 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. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Federal Agricultural Mortgage (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting 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 of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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