LendingTree, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TREE) value has fallen 11% in the last week, but insiders who sold US$657k worth of stock over the last year have had less success. Insiders might have been better off holding onto their shares, given that the average selling price of US$49.38 is still below the current share price.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

LendingTree Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The insider, Trent Ziegler, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$431k worth of shares at a price of US$49.30 each. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$40.91. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

In total, LendingTree insiders sold more 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 want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

I will like LendingTree 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.

Insiders At LendingTree Have Sold Stock Recently

We have seen a bit of insider selling at LendingTree, over the last three months. US$30k worth of shares were sold by General Counsel & Corporate Secretary Heather Enlow-Novitsky. But US$4.8k was spent on buying, too, (as we mentioned above) . While it's not great to see insider selling, the net amount sold isn't enough for us to want to read anything into it.

Does LendingTree Boast High Insider Ownership?

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It's great to see that LendingTree insiders own 18% of the company, worth about US$106m. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

So What Do The LendingTree Insider Transactions Indicate?

We note that there's been a little more insider selling than buying, recently. But the difference is small, and thus, not concerning. It's heartening that insiders own plenty of stock, but we'd like to see more insider buying, since the last year of LendingTree insider transactions don't fill us with confidence. While it's good to be aware of 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. While conducting our analysis, we found that LendingTree has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.

Of course LendingTree may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality 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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