Have Insiders Sold Yext Shares Recently?

We'd be surprised if Yext, Inc. (NYSE:YEXT) shareholders haven't noticed that the Executive VP, Ho Shin, recently sold US$259k worth of stock at US$8.63 per share. The eyebrow raising move amounted to a reduction of 21% in their holding.

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Yext

The CEO & Chairman of the Board, Michael Walrath, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$1.1m worth of shares at a price of US$6.47 each. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of US$8.33, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. We note that the biggest single sale was only 5.1% of Michael Walrath's holding.

All up, insiders sold more shares in Yext than they bought, over the last year. 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!

View our latest analysis for Yext

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Insider Ownership Of Yext

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. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. It appears that Yext insiders own 4.0% of the company, worth about US$41m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Yext Tell Us?

Insiders sold stock recently, but they haven't been buying. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. 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. While conducting our analysis, we found that Yext has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.

But note: Yext 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.

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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.