The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires all officers and board members of publicly traded companies to disclose any purchases or sales of shares in their own companies. The individuals running a company usually have a competitive edge over non-insiders when it comes to trading their company’s securities, so the investment community should keep a close eye on both insider buying and selling activity.
Information is arguably the greatest commodity in the world and corporate insiders do have a great deal of information about their companies. These highly-informed individuals hold much more up-to-date and useful information with regard to their company’s business than do journalists, analysts or investors. However, it is not just the information advantage that makes insiders successful at trading securities. Their contrarian approach to investing has been the key behind insiders’ investing success. Board members and executives have exposure to the fundamentals of their business every day and can tell with great precision whether their company’s prospects are improving or deteriorating. That said, the following article will discuss several noteworthy insider transactions reported with the SEC during the last trading session of January.
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Board Member of F.N.B. Buys Shares Ahead of Merger Completion
To start with, one member of F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB)’s Board of Directors purchased a few shares this week amid a period of seemingly low insider buying activity. Board member Laura E. Ellsworth bought 2,000 shares on Tuesday at a price tag of $14.84 each. The purchase lifted Ms. Ellsworth’s ownership to 26,834 shares.
In July 2016, the diversified financial services company agreed to buy Yadkin Financial Corp (NYSE:YDKN) in an all-stock transaction valued at around $1.3 billion. The soon-to-be combined company will have assets of almost $30 billion, as well as more than 400 banking offices throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. According to F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB)’s management, the acquisition of the North Carolina-based bank holding company and parent of Yadkin Bank is on track to close in the first quarter, while merger-related expenses “track in line with original expectations.” The company’s management also added that they have formulated a clear strategy to achieve targeted cost savings of 25%. The shares of F.N.B. have gained 26% in the past year. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors was the equity holder of 2.33 million shares of F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB) at the end of the third quarter.
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The next page of this insider trading article discusses the buying activity observed at one company and the insider selling at another.
