Over the last year, a good number of insiders have significantly increased their holdings in Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG). This is encouraging because it indicates that insiders are more optimistic about the company's prospects.

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.

Check out our latest analysis for Rogers

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Rogers

The Independent Director Armand Lauzon made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$503k worth of shares at a price of US$150 each. That means that even when the share price was higher than US$135 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 4.97k shares for US$718k. But insiders sold 2.50k shares worth US$389k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Rogers insiders. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

Rogers is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Insider Ownership

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Rogers insiders own 1.2% of the company, worth about US$29m. 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 Rogers Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Insiders do have a stake in Rogers and their transactions don't cause us concern. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. For example - Rogers has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.