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Executives and directors of Metropolitan Bank, Home BancShares, Farmers National and Berkshire Hills Bancorp were actively buying shares in September.
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Small bank insiders are grabbing the stocks as M&A activity in the industry picks up.
Executives and directors of four small lenders—-
Metropolitan Holding Bank
(ticker: MCB),
Home BancShares
(HOMB),
National Farmers Bank
(FMNB), and
Berkshire Hills Bancorp
(BHLB) – made major share purchases in September. Farmers National’s market cap is the smallest of the four, at less than $ 500 million, while Home BancShares is the largest at just under $ 4 billion.
Metropolitan Bank President and CEO Mark DeFazio paid $ 250,000 on September 20 for 3,333 shares of the bank at $ 75 each as part of a takeover bid. According to a form he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, DeFazio now owns 71,528 shares. This was the first purchase of DeFazio shares since the bank went public in November 2017; He has been CEO since 2002.
“As the founding CEO of MCB, I have tremendous confidence in MCB’s ability to continue to perform and stay relevant as a very diverse growth company in financial services,” DeFazion said in a statement in response to a request for comment on its purchase of shares.
“As we know, the banking industry has changed, and it will continue to change rapidly over the next decade. We are convinced that the MCB is well placed to embrace this change and take market share from banks that are less prepared for the change. “
He is not the only insider to have bought shares in the recent offer. Metropolitan Bank manager David Gold paid $ 75,000 for 1,000 shares. Gold, a partner of the advisory firm AdvisIRy Partners Group LLC, now owns 18,231 shares. This was his first purchase of the bank’s stock since the 2017 IPO. “We love the bank’s growth trajectory and long-term outlook as well as the team in place,” wrote Gold in an email to Barron.
Metropolitan Bank shares have climbed 138% so far this year, compared to a 29% rise in the
SPDR Financial Sector
exchange-traded funds (XLF) and a 16% increase in
S & P500 Index.
Home BancShares President and CEO John Allison paid $ 360,000 on September 27 and 30 for a total of 15,000 shares, an average price per share of $ 23.88. He now holds 5.3 million shares in a personal account and 24,497 shares in a retirement account.
Allison is the only Home BancShares insider to buy shares on the open market this year. The purchase is its first since April 2018. Home BancShares did not respond to a request to make Allison available for comment. Shares have gained 26% year-to-date.
Farmers National Director Edwad Muransky led insiders to buy shares this year, spending a total of $ 470,000. More than half of those purchases – $ 285,000 for 19,096 shares – took place in September alone. Muransky, head of the Muransky Cos. Enterprise management company, now owns 70,099 shares of Farmers National. A former NFL player with a Super Bowl ring, Muransky did not respond to a request for comment on his stock purchase. Farmers National shares have gained 21% year-to-date.
Berkshire Hills CEO Nitin J. Mhatre has been in the job for less than a year, but he has already bought more than $ 900,000 of shares in 2021. That includes $ 127,641 in purchases made in September.
“I put every cash dollar I have in the bank’s shares,” Mhatre said in a telephone interview. “I firmly believe that our intrinsic value is significantly higher. ”
With the Berkshire Hills stock up 58% year-to-date, shouldn’t this outperformance call for moderation in stock purchases, even from the CEO? Mhatre disagreed. “You have to put your money where your mouth is,” he said. He also pointed out that other insiders were buying shares of the bank as “a broader level of confidence” for the outlook for stocks.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron column that covers the stock trading of corporate executives and board members (called insiders), as well as major shareholders, politicians and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock transactions to the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory bodies.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
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