These 3 Battered Stocks Witness Heavy Insider Buying

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) had four different insiders purchase shares on Monday. To begin with, Chief Executive Officer and President Stephen D. Steinour snapped up 100,000 shares earlier this week at prices varying from $8.54 to $8.59 per share, boosting his overall holding to 3.09 million shares. Director Michael J. Endres bought 30,000 shares for $8.69 each and currently holds a direct ownership stake of 240,607 shares. James E. Dunlap, Regional Banking Group President, acquired 1,000 shares at a weighted average cost of $8.56 and owns 304,760 shares after the recent purchase. Last but not least, Howell D. McCullough III, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, reported purchasing 25,000 units of common stock on Monday at $8.60 apiece. Following the recent purchase, the CFO currently owns a stake of 260,045 shares.

The exploding insider buying activity comes after the multi-state diversified regional bank holding company announced the acquisition of Ohio-based Firstmerit Corp (NASDAQ:FMER) in a cash-and-stock deal. The shares of Huntington plummeted on the announcement, but have gradually recovered since then. The stock is 16% in the red for the past 12 months, after having dropped by nearly 22% in 2016. Pursuant to the merger agreement, each FirstMerit shareholder will receive 1.72 shares of Huntington and $5.00 in cash for each share of FirstMerit owned. FirstMerit has 367 locations in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Illinois, with the acquisition poised to make Huntington the largest bank in Ohio by market share of deposits. Moreover, the stock trades at a forward P/E multiple of 8.91, so one can conclude that the recent insider purchases reported by Huntington’s insiders appear to be well-timed transactions that could generate attractive returns. A total of 20 hedge funds monitored by our team had stakes in the company at the end of the third quarter. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management reported ownership of 2.79 million shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) through its 13F for the third quarter.