German Tech Company IONOS Just Saw a €564K Insider Purchase

Corporate insiders know more about their businesses than anyone else. If these individuals are buying company stock, it’s often worth taking a closer look.

In this report, we are going to highlight some interesting insider buying at IONOS Group SE (IOS:GR). IONOS is a German company that provides website hosting services. Operating in 18 markets across Europe and North America, it offers a comprehensive portfolio of web presence/productivity and cloud solutions. It is listed on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra and currently has a market cap of around €1.87 billion.

Insider Buying at IONOS Group

Our data shows that on May 24, IONOS CEO Achim Weiss purchased 39,742 shares at a price of €13.50 per share. This trade cost the insider €536,517.

On the same day, CFO Britta Schmidt made a smaller purchase, picking up 2,000 shares at a price of €13.50 per share. This trade cost her €27,000.

Industry Experience

It’s the large trade from CEO Achim Weiss that stands out here.

Mr. Weiss – who has served as CEO since 2018 – has considerable industry experience. In 1995, he co-founded Schlund+Partner, the German web hosting partner that was acquired by 1 & 1 in 1998. From 1998 to 2008, he was Chief Technology Officer at 1&1 Internet AG. Here, he developed the first web hosting platform for the mass market. In 2010, he founded ProfitBricks, a cloud infrastructure (IaaS) business. This merged with 1 & 1 in 2018 to become IONOS.

Given his background, his large stock purchase is notable.

Good Start to 2023

IONOS’ recent Q1 results showed that the company has made a good start to 2023.

Over the quarter, the company added 63,000 customers, taking total customers to 6.06 million. This helped push revenue up 13.6% to €353.8 million. EBITDA rose 7.8% to €92.7 million.

Looking ahead, management confirmed its guidance for 2023. For the year, it expects a 10% increase in revenue along with at least 10% growth in adjusted EBITDA.

It’s worth noting that since IONOS’ IPO in February this year, its share price has come down significantly (the IPO price was €18.50). And with analysts expecting earnings to come in at €0.78 this year, the valuation is relatively low.

Currently, IONOS has a forward-looking P/E ratio of just 18, versus 30 for US rival GoDaddy.

Clearly, Mr. Weiss sees value at current levels. We see the insider buying activity as a bullish development.