We wouldn't blame Allegion plc (NYSE:ALLE) shareholders if they were a little worried about the fact that Robert Martens, the Senior VP and Chief Innovation & Design Officer recently netted about US$548k selling shares at an average price of US$137. That sale reduced their total holding by 39% which is hardly insignificant, but far from the worst we've seen.

Allegion Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the SVP & President of International, Timothy Eckersley, for US$1.8m worth of shares, at about US$165 per share. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$131. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 3.60k shares worth US$564k. But insiders sold 17.70k shares worth US$2.8m. Over the last year we saw more insider selling of Allegion shares, than buying. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

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Insider Ownership

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. It appears that Allegion insiders own 0.3% of the company, worth about US$34m. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.

So What Do The Allegion Insider Transactions Indicate?

Unfortunately, there has been more insider selling of Allegion stock, than buying, in the last three months. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. But since Allegion is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. While insiders do own shares, they don't own a heap, and they have been selling. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company.

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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.