Trade Alert: The Independent Director Of HomeStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMST), Mark Patterson, Has Just Spent US$344k Buying 13% More Shares
Potential HomeStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMST) shareholders may wish to note that the Independent Director, Mark Patterson, recently bought US$344k worth of stock, paying US$22.95 for each share. That's a very decent purchase to our minds and it grew their holding by a solid 13%.
See our latest analysis for HomeStreet
The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At HomeStreet
In fact, the recent purchase by Mark Patterson was the biggest purchase of HomeStreet shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price, which is US$24.81. Of course they may have changed their mind. But this suggests they are optimistic. While we always like to see insider buying, it's less meaningful if the purchases were made at much lower prices, as the opportunity they saw may have passed. Happily, the HomeStreet insiders decided to buy shares at close to current prices.
In the last twelve months insiders purchased 53.68k shares for US$1.3m. But they sold 6289.57 shares for US$183k. Overall, HomeStreet insiders were net buyers during the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!
HomeStreet is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.
Insider Ownership of HomeStreet
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Insiders own 3.5% of HomeStreet shares, worth about US$20m. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.
So What Does This Data Suggest About HomeStreet Insiders?
It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchases. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. Given that insiders also own a fair bit of HomeStreet we think they are probably pretty confident of a bright future. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. While conducting our analysis, we found that HomeStreet has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.
If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.
For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
