Some City Holding Company (NASDAQ:CHCO) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the President, Charles Hageboeck, recently sold a substantial US$650k worth of stock at a price of US$145 per share. However, that sale only accounted for 8.9% of their holding, so arguably it doesn't say much about their conviction.

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At City Holding

Notably, that recent sale by President Charles Hageboeck was not the only time they sold City Holding shares this year. They previously made an even bigger sale of -US$734k worth of shares at a price of US$125 per share. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of US$145, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. 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. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. We note that the biggest single sale was only 10% of Charles Hageboeck's holding.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 672.00 shares for US$82k. But they sold 21.35k shares for US$2.7m. All up, insiders sold more shares in City Holding than they bought, 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 Of City Holding

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. City Holding insiders own about US$36m worth of shares. That equates to 1.7% of the company. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About City Holding Insiders?

Unfortunately, there has been more insider selling of City Holding stock, than buying, in the last three months. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. But it is good to see that City Holding is growing earnings. Insider ownership isn't particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing.

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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.