Anyone interested in Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQST) should probably be aware that the CEO, President & Director, Daniel Barber, recently divested US$104k worth of shares in the company, at an average price of US$4.16 each. On the bright side, that sale was only 3.8% of their holding, so we doubt it's very meaningful, on its own.

Aquestive Therapeutics Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent sale by CEO, President & Director Daniel Barber was not their only sale of Aquestive Therapeutics shares this year. They previously made an even bigger sale of -US$754k worth of shares at a price of US$4.17 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (US$4.43). When an insider sells below the current price, it suggests that they considered that lower price to be fair. That makes us wonder what they think of the (higher) recent valuation. While insider selling is not a positive sign, we can't be sure if it does mean insiders think the shares are fully valued, so it's only a weak sign. We note that the biggest single sale was only 15% of Daniel Barber's holding.

Aquestive Therapeutics insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

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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. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that Aquestive Therapeutics insiders own 2.8% of the company, worth about US$15m. 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 Aquestive Therapeutics Insider Transactions Indicate?

An insider hasn't bought Aquestive Therapeutics stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. And there weren't any purchases to give us comfort, over the last year. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. 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.

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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.