Even if it's not a huge purchase, we think it was good to see that Summer Frein, the Chief Revenue Officer of Turning Point Brands, Inc. (NYSE:TPB) recently shelled out US$70k to buy stock, at US$30.96 per share. That purchase might not be huge but it did increase their holding by 15%.

View our latest analysis for Turning Point Brands

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Turning Point Brands

In fact, the recent purchase by Summer Frein was the biggest purchase of Turning Point Brands shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that even when the share price was higher than US$30.75 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock when an insider has bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price. The only individual insider to buy over the last year was Summer Frein.

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!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.

Does Turning Point Brands Boast High Insider Ownership?

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Turning Point Brands insiders own 4.5% of the company, worth about US$24m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Do The Turning Point Brands Insider Transactions Indicate?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. Insiders likely see value in Turning Point Brands shares, given these transactions (along with notable insider ownership of the company). 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 Turning Point Brands has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.