A number of Dynavax Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:DVAX) insiders sold their shares in the last year, which may have raised concerns among investors. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more beneficial than knowing whether they are selling, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, when multiple insiders sell stock over a specific duration, shareholders should take notice as that could possibly be a red flag.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

Dynavax Technologies Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Chief Accounting Officer & Controller, Justin Burgess, sold US$172k worth of shares at a price of US$12.78 per share. 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$10.75. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

Insiders in Dynavax Technologies didn't buy any shares in the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, 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 Dynavax Technologies 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.

Dynavax Technologies Insiders Are Selling The Stock

The last three months saw some Dynavax Technologies insider selling. Independent Director Francis Cano divested only US$43k worth of shares in that time. It's not great to see insider selling, nor the lack of recent buyers. But the volume sold is so low that it really doesn't bother us.

Insider Ownership

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Based on our data, Dynavax Technologies insiders have about 0.3% of the stock, worth approximately US$4.0m. I generally like to see higher levels of ownership.

So What Do The Dynavax Technologies Insider Transactions Indicate?

We did not see any insider buying in the last three months, but we did see selling. But given the selling was modest, we're not worried. Recent insider selling makes us a little nervous, in light of the broader picture of Dynavax Technologies insider transactions. And usually insiders own more stock in the company, according to our data. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. While conducting our analysis, we found that Dynavax Technologies has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.

Of course Dynavax Technologies 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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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.