Bloomin' Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) insiders who bought shares over the past year were rewarded handsomely last week. The stock rose 11%, resulting in a US$78m rise in the company's market capitalisation, translating to a gain of 45% on their initial investment. As a result, their original purchase of US$1.03m worth of stock is now worth US$1.49m.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Bloomin' Brands Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Executive VP & CFO Eric Christel for US$957k worth of shares, at about US$6.38 per share. Although we like to see insider buying, we note that this large purchase was at significantly below the recent price of US$9.16. 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.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 162.50k shares for US$1.0m. But insiders sold 4.26k shares worth US$27k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Bloomin' Brands insiders. 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!

Bloomin' Brands is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of under-the-radar companies with insider buying.

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Bloomin' Brands insiders own about US$22m worth of shares. That equates to 2.8% of the company. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Do The Bloomin' Brands Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Bloomin' Brands insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. Insiders do have a stake in Bloomin' Brands and their transactions don't cause us concern. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. To help with this, we've discovered 4 warning signs (1 is potentially serious!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Bloomin' Brands.

Of course Bloomin' Brands 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.

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.