Don’t Ignore The Insider Selling In Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina

We’d be surprised if Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBK) shareholders haven’t noticed that the Independent Vice Chairman of the Board, James Abernethy, recently sold US$108k worth of stock at US$27.12 per share. On the bright side, that sale was only 2.0% of their holding, so we doubt it’s very meaningful, on its own.

Check out our latest analysis for Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Independent Director, William Terry, sold US$325k worth of shares at a price of US$32.50 per share. We generally don’t like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. It’s of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$27.24. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 3.91k shares for US$81k. On the other hand they divested 18.00k shares, for US$520k. All up, insiders sold more shares in Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina than they bought, over the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

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Insider Ownership

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. Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina insiders own about US$23m worth of shares. That equates to 15% of the company. 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 Do The Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina Insider Transactions Indicate?

An insider hasn’t bought Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn’t give us much comfort. But it is good to see that Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina is growing earnings. Insider ownership isn’t particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. We’d practice some caution before buying! So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it’s also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. You’d be interested to know, that we found 2 warning signs for Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina and we suggest you have a look.

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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 of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.