James Filler, a major owner at Century Bancorp (CNBKA), recently added 1,002 shares to his stake. A mere 0.12 percent increase, the $69,000 buy increased his holdings to over 848,000 shares.
This follows on top of some small share buys from company executives earlier in the month, although Filler has been the major buyer of shares in the past year.
The Massachusetts based-bank has 27 offices in the state. Shares have shed 21 percent in the past year, as the decline in interest rates to zero has adversely impacted bank stocks as a whole. Even with that impediment, the bank has managed to maintain a massive 35 percent profit margin, and the bank now trades at book value instead of 1.5 times book value.
Insiders, led by Filler, own over 25 percent of the bank. That’s a huge amount of insider ownership, and a sign that
Action to take: Shares are attractive here, even with a low 0.8 percent dividend yield. As the bank is too small to attract options traders, there aren’t any decent options plays here. However, traders could buy the March 2021 $41 calls on the SPDR Regional Bank ETF (KRE). These calls, trading for around $3.45, are a bet that the recent trend in regional banks will continue to head higher.