Legal Corporate Insider Trading and the Price Impact of Private Information: Evidence for Germany

This study examines the information value of corporate insider trading disclosures for a sample of 490 German companies. Our results indicate that insiders selling stocks in their own company reveal negative information about the intrinsic firm value. This is especially the case for large volume sale transactions. In addition, stock prices of smaller companies react stronger to insider transactions. Furthermore, insiders tend to time their transactions, selling shares after stock price increases and buying shares after stock price decreases.