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How Many Crane Co. (NYSE:CR) Shares Did Insiders Buy, In The Last Year?

We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Crane Co. (NYSE:CR).

What Is Insider Buying?

It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise'.

View our latest analysis for Crane

Crane Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Vice President of People & Performance, James Lavish, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$100k worth of shares at a price of US$88.55 each. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. The silver lining is that this sell-down took place above the latest price (US$52.53). So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price. The only individual insider seller over the last year was James Lavish.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 2.33k shares for US$130k. On the other hand they divested 1.13k shares, for US$100k. Overall, Crane insiders were net buyers during the last year. They paid about US$55.63 on average. I'd consider this a positive as it suggests insiders see value at around the current price. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

insider-trading-volume
insider-trading-volume

Crane 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 of Crane

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 2.1% of Crane shares, worth about US$64m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Do The Crane Insider Transactions Indicate?

It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded Crane shares in the last quarter. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. Insiders do have a stake in Crane and their transactions don't cause us concern. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Crane. While conducting our analysis, we found that Crane has 4 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore them.

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, but not derivative transactions.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.

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