We wouldn’t blame Banc-Corp associated (NYSE: ASB) if they were a little worried that Andrew Harmening, the chairman, recently sold around $ 1.2 million in stock at an average price of $ 22.90. This is a significant divestiture, and it reduced the size of their operation by 17%, which is noticeable but not too serious.

Insider transactions associated with Banc-Corp over the past year

Notably, this recent sale by Andrew Harmening is the biggest insider sale of Associated Banc-Corp stocks we’ve seen in the past year. This means that an insider was selling shares around the current price of US $ 22.81. While we generally don’t like to see insider sales, it is more of a concern if the sales come at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place around the current price, so it’s not too bad (but it’s still not positive).

Fortunately, we note that over the past year, insiders paid US $ 665,000 for 31.50,000 shares. But they sold 77.46,000 shares for $ 1.7 million. Over the past year, we’ve seen more insider sales of Associated Banc-Corp stocks than purchases. Below you can see a visual representation of insider trading (by businesses and individuals) over the past 12 months. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise detail of each insider trade!

NYSE: ASB Insider Trading Volume June 5, 2021

If you like to buy stocks that insiders buy rather than sell, then you might love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders bought them).

Insider ownership of Associated Banc-Corp

Another way to test the alignment between a company’s executives and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will have an incentive to build the business for the long term. It appears that Associated Banc-Corp insiders own 2.2% of the company, worth around $ 74 million. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly noteworthy. It certainly suggests a reasonable degree of alignment.

So what do the insider trades associated with Banc-Corp indicate?

Insider sales have outpaced insider buying at Associated Banc-Corp in the past three months. With zooming out, the longer term image doesn’t give us much comfort. On the positive side, Associated Banc-Corp is making money and increasing profits. While the insiders own stocks, they don’t own a bunch, and they’ve sold. So we would only buy after careful consideration. In addition to knowing the current insider transactions, it is useful to identify the risks that Associated Banc-Corp faces. For example, Associated Banc-Corp has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is a bit disturbing) we think you should be aware of.

Of course Associated Banc-Corp may not be the best stock to buy. So you might want to see this free collection of high quality businesses.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are the persons who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private assignments, but not derivative transactions.

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