The recent price decline of 11% in Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc.'s (NYSE:GPMT) stock may have disappointed insiders who bought US$212.9k worth of shares at an average price of US$2.42 in the past 12 months. Insiders purchase with the hope of seeing their investments increase in value over time. However, due to recent losses, their initial investment is now only worth US$117.0k, which is not great.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Granite Point Mortgage Trust Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Independent Chairman of the Board, Stephen Kasnet, sold US$121k worth of shares at a price of US$2.69 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$1.33. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 88.00k shares for US$213k. But insiders sold 64.67k shares worth US$174k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Granite Point Mortgage Trust insiders. 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 plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. From our data, it seems that Granite Point Mortgage Trust insiders own 5.7% of the company, worth about US$3.6m. Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing!

So What Do The Granite Point Mortgage Trust Insider Transactions Indicate?

The fact that there have been no Granite Point Mortgage Trust insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. The transactions are fine but it'd be more encouraging if Granite Point Mortgage Trust insiders bought more shares in the company. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Granite Point Mortgage Trust.

But note: Granite Point Mortgage Trust may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE 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.