Don't Ignore The Insider Selling In Valley National Bancorp

Some Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Senior Executive Vice President of Commercial Banking, Joseph Chillura, recently sold a substantial US$1.0m worth of stock at a price of US$10.31 per share. That sale reduced their total holding by 19% which is hardly insignificant, but far from the worst we've seen.

View our latest analysis for Valley National Bancorp

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Valley National Bancorp

In fact, the recent sale by Joseph Chillura was the biggest sale of Valley National Bancorp shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$10.28. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive).

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 852.00 shares worth US$6.1k. On the other hand they divested 201.17k shares, for US$1.8m. Over the last year we saw more insider selling of Valley National Bancorp shares, than buying. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

I will like Valley National Bancorp better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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. It appears that Valley National Bancorp insiders own 1.3% of the company, worth about US$76m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Valley National Bancorp Tell Us?

The insider sales have outweighed the insider buying, at Valley National Bancorp, in the last three months. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. We're in no rush to buy! Of course, the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in Valley National Bancorp, you should check out this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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 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.