Stephen Guthrie, CFO at Hawthorn Bancshares (HWBK), recently bought 3,000 additional shares. The buy increased his stake by nearly 59 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just over $71,500.
This follows up from purchases by two company directors last month, totaling nearly $500,000 across three transactions. Over the past three years, company insiders have been steady buyers with no insider sales. Insiders own just over 6 percent of the bank.
Shares of the Missouri-based bank are up 21 percent in the past year, underperforming the S&P 500 by nearly 11 points. That comes as the bank has increased revenue by nearly 64 percent, and earnings have grown by nearly 573 percent, and the bank has a 27.7 percent profit margin.
Action to take: Shares look attractive here. While they’re at a slight premium to the bank’s book value, smaller banks on a fast growth track tend to look attractive to larger regional banks. Shares could jump quickly on a buyout offer.
Even if they don’t, the company recently raised its annual dividend to $0.60 from $0.50, a hefty percentage jump. The current yield of 2.5 percent looks more attractive than a bond given continued upside potential in shares or a buyout offer.
The downside? Given the bank’s small market capitalization, there are no options available on this trade.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the stock mentioned here, but may make a trade this company after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.