Citigroup Inc. (C) and Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW) Among Companies with Noteworthy Insider Selling

This Regional Bank Had One Executive Sell Shares This Week

PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) also had one of its executives unload a sizable block of shares this week. Suzanne R. Brennan, Executive Vice President of Risk Management, sold 20,000 shares on Wednesday at a weighted average price of $40.01, which were held in the Brennan Family Trust that currently owns 6,478 shares. Ms. Brennan also holds a direct ownership stake of 22,500 shares.

The holding company of the wholly-owned subsidiary Pacific Western Bank has seen its shares gain 17% in the past three months, but the stock is still down 6% year-to-date. In October 2015, the company acquired Square 1 Financial Inc. to increase core deposits, expand its lending products, as well as increase presence in the technology and life-sciences credit markets. As a result, the company formed the Square 1 Bank Division of its bank that provides a portfolio of financial services focused on entrepreneurial businesses and their venture capital and private equity investors. With the successful integration of Square 1 Financial, the company’s management is set to focus on two key corporate initiatives in 2016. First, the company plans to convert its current customer accounts processing system to a new one offered by another software vendor. Second, the company will submit its first DFAST capital stress test to regulators, the success of which may have an effect on dividends and share repurchase initiatives.

There were 22 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey with stakes in PacWest Bancorp at the end December, which amassed 5.40% of its outstanding shares. Meanwhile, the stock is priced at 13.2-times expected earnings, slightly above the forward P/E ratio of 11.5 for the Regional Banks sector. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported owning 2.15 million shares of PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) through the latest round of 13Fs.