Kenneth Phelan, a director at Huntington Bancshares (HBAN), recently added 7,560 shares to his holdings. The buy increased his stake by nearly 14 percent, and came to a total price just under $120,000.
The same director also picked up 20,000 shares back in November, at a price similar to where shares trade today. Otherwise, company insiders have more likely been sellers of shares over the past three years.
Overall, insiders at the company own just under 0.9 percent of the shares.
The regional bank has seen shares rise about 12 percent in the past year, underperforming the S&P 500 index by about 5 points. That’s in spite of a 27 percent increase in earnings and a 51 percent jump in revenue.
Action to take: Investors may like shares here, which trade at just 12 times forward earnings. The bank is a little expensive based on its price to book ratio, but is a large enough player that a major bank might want to acquire it in the future. For now, investors can lock in a 3.8 percent starting dividend yield.
For traders, shares have been somewhat rangebound over the past year, but appear to be heading higher. The April $17 calls, last going for about $0.30, could become a triple-digit winner on a jump higher in shares in the coming months, should shares continue to keep rallying.
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.