Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) shareholders (or potential shareholders) will be happy to see that the Senior VP & CFO, Charles Chang, recently bought a whopping US$1.5m worth of stock, at a price of US$765,187. Aside from being a solid chunk in its own right, the deft move also saw their holding increase by some 33%.

Berkshire Hathaway Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The CEO, President & Director Gregory Abel made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$15m worth of shares at a price of US$733,300 each. That implies that an insider found the current price of US$755,570 per share to be enticing. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. While we always like to see insider buying, it's less meaningful if the purchases were made at much lower prices, as the opportunity they saw may have passed. Happily, the Berkshire Hathaway insiders decided to buy shares at close to current prices.

In the last twelve months Berkshire Hathaway insiders were buying shares, but not selling. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. If investing in lesser known companies is your style, you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership Of Berkshire Hathaway

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Berkshire Hathaway insiders own about US$145b worth of shares (which is 13% of the company). 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 Does This Data Suggest About Berkshire Hathaway Insiders?

It is good to see the recent insider purchase. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. Once you factor in the high insider ownership, it certainly seems like insiders are positive about Berkshire Hathaway. One for the watchlist, at least! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Berkshire Hathaway. To assist with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Berkshire Hathaway.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

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.