美国铁塔公司(纽约证券交易所代码：AMT)内部人士抛售了价值240万美元的股票，这可能是下跌趋势的信号

Over the past year, many American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) insiders sold a significant stake in the company which may have piqued investors' interest. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying versus if they selling is usually more beneficial, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, when multiple insiders sell stock over a specific duration, shareholders should take notice as that could possibly be a red flag.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

See our latest analysis for American Tower

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At American Tower

The Senior VP & Chief Accounting Officer, Robert Meyer, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$1.5m worth of shares at a price of US$285 each. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$258. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price.

In total, American Tower insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Are American Tower Insiders Buying Or Selling?

We've only seen a tiny insider purchase valued at US$2.2k, in the last three months. Overall, we don't think these recent trades are particularly informative, one way or the other.

Does American Tower Boast High Insider Ownership?

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. American Tower insiders own 0.3% of the company, currently worth about US$364m based on the recent share price. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At American Tower Tell Us?

Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. Overall the buying isn't worth writing home about. It's great to see high levels of insider ownership, but looking back over the last year, we'd need to see more buying to gain confidence from the American Tower insider transactions. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Our analysis shows 2 warning signs for American Tower (1 is concerning!) and we strongly recommend you look at these before investing.

But note: American Tower 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, but not derivative transactions.

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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.