Quite a few insiders have dramatically grown their holdings in Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) over the past 12 months. An insider's optimism about the company's prospects is a positive sign.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

See our latest analysis for Hillenbrand

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Hillenbrand

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the insider, Ling An-Heid, sold US$524k worth of shares at a price of US$52.45 per share. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$46.33. So it may not shed much light on insider confidence at current levels.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$1.5m for 35.47k shares. But they sold 18.00k shares for US$939k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Hillenbrand insiders. 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!

Hillenbrand is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Insiders At Hillenbrand Have Bought Stock Recently

Over the last three months, we've seen significant insider buying at Hillenbrand. Overall, four insiders shelled out US$1.3m for shares in the company -- and none sold. This makes one think the business has some good points.

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. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It appears that Hillenbrand insiders own 1.0% of the company, worth about US$32m. 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 Hillenbrand Tell Us?

It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Hillenbrand insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Hillenbrand. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Hillenbrand (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.