Insiders sell more stock in their own company

Frankfurt Corporate insiders have a reputation for being counter-cyclical investors, but recently they’ve failed to live up to that reputation. Management and supervisory boards of German companies did not particularly use the setbacks on the stock market in March to buy shares that had fallen sharply. On the contrary: the company leaders sold as many shares as they last did in June.

This is shown by a look at the largest insider transactions reported to the financial supervisory authority Bafin, which Olaf Stotz, professor at the Frankfurt School private university, evaluates monthly for the Handelsblatt. Stotz is surprised by the result in March – precisely because insiders usually scent bargains when stocks fall sharply.