Some Agilysys, Inc. (NASDAQ:AGYS) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Senior VP & CFO, William Wood, recently sold a substantial US$855k worth of stock at a price of US$85.45 per share. That sale reduced their total holding by 17% which is hardly insignificant, but far from the worst we've seen.

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Agilysys

Notably, that recent sale by William Wood is the biggest insider sale of Agilysys shares that we've seen in the last year. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$81.60. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive).

All up, insiders sold more shares in Agilysys than they bought, 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!

I will like Agilysys better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Does Agilysys Boast High Insider Ownership?

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It's great to see that Agilysys insiders own 4.7% of the company, worth about US$102m. This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.

So What Do The Agilysys Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders haven't bought Agilysys stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. But since Agilysys is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. It is good to see high insider ownership, but the insider selling leaves us cautious. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Agilysys (2 are significant) you should be aware of.

But note: Agilysys 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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