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SarahGen (99.83)

Regional Banks - Insiders Buying Right Now

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November 05, 2009 – Comments (12) | RELATED TICKERS: BAC , HBAN , BOFL

Insider buying for financials, in particular banks, has outpaced other sectors for days now.  If you look at the charts for most banks, you'll see that this corresponds with a selloff in bank shares over the last couple weeks.

Today alone, insider buys were made for the following:

Whitney Holding Corp (WTNY) $400k

Home Bancorp (HBCP) $141k

Oriental Financial Group (OFG) $57.7k

Old National Bancorp (ONB)  $49.9k

West Bancorp (WTBA)  $45k

Huntington Bancshares (HBAN)  $37.5k

First Financial Bankshares (FFIN)  $28.9k

Peoples Financial Services (PFIS.OB) $27.7k

Bank of Florida (BOFL) $13k

Expand the search to look at the entire last week, and the numbers get even bigger.  The top five on a weekly basis are: PVTB, NARA, HBAN, WTNY, SONA with insider purchases from the highfor PVTB of $71M to SONA with $452.

Looking over the last month, the following all had total purchases over $200k  (from the largest on down) are: PVTB, CNBC, WTNY, NARA, BAC, HBAN, ASBC, SONA, CBNJ, GBNK, TOBC, FBP, PCBK

I'm not saying to run out and buy all or any of these right now, but it's interesting that insiders think this is such a great opportunity to buy.  I have bought a few of these and also picked even more for CAPS.  We'll see.

Numbers are all from Form4Oracle.  It's a great place to start to look for some specifics on who bought and when, and how big a percentage this purchase was.  Just plug in the ticker.  I then like to take a look at CAPS for individual opinions and rankings.  And of course a glance at Yahoo Finance or Google Finance to check the latest news.

 

 

12 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On November 05, 2009 at 3:49 PM, davejh23 (< 20) wrote:

Interesting find.  I'd noticed that financials have under-performed the overall market over the last couple of weeks...the opposite of what we saw through most of this year.  Now, is this insider buying a bullish indicator for financials, or a bearish indicator?  I'd bet that some of these banks with recent insider buys will be worth $0 within the next couple of years...some of them will probably turn out to be good investments at this point also.  I'm still staying away from banks.

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#2) On November 05, 2009 at 3:56 PM, SarahGen (99.83) wrote:

I missed out on the big bank rally earlier in the year, but I think we're set for another one.

Of course, there's going to be a big differentiator going forward - those with big commercial loans (which are supposed to be the next big fall) and those without much in commercial loans.

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#3) On November 05, 2009 at 4:18 PM, davejh23 (< 20) wrote:

That's the problem with these smaller regional banks...many of them are the ones with the largest commericial loan exposure.  I'm sure there are quality stocks in there, but they could still get beaten down along with the duds.  I'd at least keep some cash available to add to your positions if they fall...  I'd probably be looking at financials more, but I don't feel like I can trust their balance sheets right now.  Just do your research...I'm sure their are plenty of good investing opportunities in financials...

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#4) On November 05, 2009 at 6:25 PM, MGDG (98.21) wrote:

Interesting Sarah. My experience has been the insiders are early to sell and early to buy. The Regional Banks being smaller, may have found it easier to repair their balance sheets and have more confidence going forward.

     I have been considering moving my assest to a Regional Bank, but haven't made the move yet. The Regional Bank I had 30 years ago, was gobbled up 3 times, until it ended up in the hands of B of A.

     I agree that the best opportunities going forward in Financial Banks could be in the Regionals and it would worth the time to find the best ones in that sub sector of banking.

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#5) On November 05, 2009 at 6:31 PM, SarahGen (99.83) wrote:

fyi, I just posted all the biggest buys in banks for today, week and month.  So some of those aren't regionals.. like you'll see BAC up there, which is obviously not a regional.

And I totally agree about them being early.  AKAM and GME insiders are recent examples - huge insider buying, but the stocks didn't move right away.  Insiders are required to hold the stock they buy for at least six months, so it encourages them to think longggg term - not just about the next earnings announcement.

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#6) On November 05, 2009 at 6:46 PM, Tastylunch (99.59) wrote:

kinda interesting given how massive the selloffs of insider in gnereal across the market has been

frankly it's nice to see.

man I wonder what HBAN knows? everyone around here thinks they have a ton of CRE headaches coming.

 

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#7) On November 05, 2009 at 7:48 PM, SarahGen (99.83) wrote:

hmmm - I was just looking at PVTB - which tops the weekly and monthly list, and saw that it's one of the only stocks that UltraLong has greenthumbed lately.  He's only been redthumbing stuff.   He has the lead bull pitch on PVTB

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#8) On November 06, 2009 at 1:16 AM, Teacherman1 (95.03) wrote:

Will probablly add PVTB tomorrow.

Bought IRE a couple of days ago when everything was down. Up about 38% so far.

I am a longer term investor and not too worried about the intermediate term swings. If I can achieve a degree of certainty that a bank is not going under, I am willing to buy low and hold.

I also find the reports they have to file with the regulators more informative then most other sources. 

If they lie there, then they are in real trouble. 

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#9) On November 06, 2009 at 11:01 AM, floridabuilder2 (99.65) wrote:

Insider buying is a sign, but there is a much bigger and important sign as to which banks to go long and short.  Hopefully today I can get my last in series blog post out regarding banks

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#10) On November 06, 2009 at 11:11 AM, JakilaTheHun (99.93) wrote:

I am very bullish on some small commercial banks.  I've been buying in like mad. 

I plan to write a few articles in the next month, but I haven't released any yet due to contractual obligations.

I'd be wary of Bank of Florida (BOFL).  They just announced a share offering.  There are currently about 12-13 million outstanding shares and the offering will be for about 86 million common shares, so that is some *MAJOR* dilution.  If they needed the extra money, they should've raised it before share prices were completely in the gutter, because this is going to destroy existing shareholders. 

The banks that raised money in mid to early 2008 are looking the smartest now.  Even the ones that raised it earlier this year aren't looking too terrible.  But the ones that raise it now when the stock prices are horribly depressed are destroying value in the extreme. 

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#11) On November 06, 2009 at 12:32 PM, SarahGen (99.83) wrote:

Thanks for the warning on BOFL.  Wow, their chart looks unbelievably horrible!  Most banks rallied since March, and have just pulled back a bit lately - but BOFL has just gone straight down.

PVTB is working out very nicely today though.  Normally my ideas don't pay off that fast!

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#12) On November 06, 2009 at 12:37 PM, bigcat1969 (98.25) wrote:

I hope regionals do start floating up, I'm getting hammered on CRBC right now.  They did what BOFL is planning, I believe, and haven't recovered yet.

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