This Insider Has Just Sold Shares In Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT)

We'd be surprised if Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT) shareholders haven't noticed that the Chairman, James Mullen, recently sold US$492k worth of stock at US$26.95 per share. That sale was 19% of their holding, so it does make us raise an eyebrow.

Editas Medicine Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent sale by Chairman James Mullen was not their only trade of Editas Medicine shares this year. Earlier in the year, they spent US$1.2m to buy shares at US$46.27 per share. That means that even when the share price was higher than US$26.40 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels. We note that James Mullen was also the biggest seller.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$1.4m for 30.80k shares. But insiders sold 36.74k shares worth US$1.3m. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Editas Medicine insiders. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Editas Medicine is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Our data indicates that Editas Medicine insiders own about US$5.8m worth of shares (which is 0.3% of the company). Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing!

So What Does This Data Suggest About Editas Medicine Insiders?

Insiders haven't bought Editas Medicine stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. But we take heart from prior transactions. But we'd like it if insiders owned more stock, overall. So we can't be sure that insiders are optimistic. 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. While conducting our analysis, we found that Editas Medicine has 4 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore them.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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, but not derivative transactions.

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