General Counsel Of Ally Financial Sold $656.15 Thousand In Stock

Scott Stengel, General Counsel at Ally Financial ALLY, made a large insider sell on September 2, according to a new SEC filing.

What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday showed that Stengel sold 12,500 shares of Ally Financial at a price of $52.49 per share. The total transaction amounted to $656,149.

They still own a total of 96,517 of Ally Financial worth, $5,015,023, based on the market price of $51.96.

Ally Financial shares are trading down 1.01% at $51.96 at the time of this writing on Thursday afternoon.

Why Insider Transactions Are Important

Insider transactions shouldn't be used primarily to make an investing decision, however an insider transaction can be an important factor in the investing decision.

In legal terms, an "insider" refers to any shareholder who owns at least 10% of a company. This can include executives in the c-suite and large hedge funds. These insiders are required to let the public know of their transactions via a Form 4 filing, which must be filed within two business days of the transaction.

When a company insider makes a new purchase, that is an indication that they expect the stock to rise.

Insider sells, on the other hand, can be made for a variety of reasons, and may not necessarily mean that the seller thinks the stock will go down.

Important Transaction Codes

Investors prefer focusing on transactions that take place in the open market, indicated in Table I of the Form 4 filing. A P in Box 3 indicates a purchase, while S indicates a sale. Transaction code C indicates the conversion of an option, and transaction code A indicates the insider may have been forced to sell shares in order to receive compensation that had been promised upon being hired by the company.

To get more information on previous transactions, check out the insider's net worth page.