Anyone interested in Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:PGC) should probably be aware that the Senior EVP & President of Wealth Management, John Babcock, recently divested US$236k worth of shares in the company, at an average price of US$47.11 each. On the bright side, that sale was only 3.8% of their holding, so we doubt it's very meaningful, on its own.

Peapack-Gladstone Financial Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The President Douglas Kennedy made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$398k worth of shares at a price of US$35.21 each. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of US$48.33. Because the shares were purchased at a lower price, this particular buy doesn't tell us much about how insiders feel about the current share price.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 19.34k shares worth US$646k. On the other hand they divested 21.56k shares, for US$845k. All up, insiders sold more shares in Peapack-Gladstone Financial than they bought, over the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

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Insider Ownership

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Peapack-Gladstone Financial insiders own about US$89m worth of shares. That equates to 11% 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 Peapack-Gladstone Financial Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders haven't bought Peapack-Gladstone Financial stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. On the plus side, Peapack-Gladstone Financial makes money, and is growing profits. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing.

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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.

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.