Kimberly Swan, a director at The First Bancorp (FNLC), recently picked up 5,000 shares. The buy increased her stake by 249 percent, and came to a total price of just under $151,000.
This is the director’s second buy of the year, following a 350 share pickup back in July. Those mark the only two insider buys of 2021. Over the past three years, insiders have been both buyers and sellers, although buyers have far outweighed sales from company insiders, including both directors and executives.
Overall, insiders own 5.6 percent of company shares.
The regional bank is based out of Maine. The stock is up about 22 percent over the past year, just slightly below the returns of the S&P 500.
Trading at 10 times earnings, and with earnings up 27 percent over the past year and revenues up 17 percent over the past year, shares generally look attractive, although the bank does trade a bit high relative to its book value for a smaller bank.
Action to take: Investors may like shares, which yield 4.2 percent at current prices. The bank has slightly raised its dividend over the past year, and has a low enough payout ratio to keep raising in time.
Traders may like the June $35 calls. They have ample time for a rally in shares to play out. Last going with a bid/ask spread around $0.85, they’re also inexpensive enough to generate high-double to low-triple digit returns.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.