Sizable Insider Purchases At American Express (AXP), 2 Other Companies Amid Declining Insider Confidence

Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) had not seen any insiders purchase shares since early 2013 until last week. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Paul E. Burdiss purchased 25,000 shares on Thursday at a weighted average price of $22.16, lifting his overall holding to 60,855 shares. This purchase comes after the financial services company, which is comprised of a pool of banks in select Western markets, released its fourth-quarter earnings report last Monday. It is important to note that the shares of Zions lost nearly 33% since the beginning of December through the aforementioned earnings announcement. It is highly likely that Zions’ insiders were restricted from buying shares prior to the earnings release, so the recent purchase clearly suggests that the market wrongly punished the stock in recent months.

During the second quarter of 2015, Zions revealed its plans to undergo a corporate restructuring, which is set to enhance the company’s profitability metrics. Zions intends to reach an efficiency ratio (which in general terms, is defined as expenses as a percentage of revenue) in the low 60’s for fiscal year 2016. Zions had an efficiency ratio of 69.8% for the fourth quarter of 2015. The stock is down by nearly 8% over the past 12 months and trades at a forward P/E multiple of 10.15, which might lure some investors to pour some cash into the company’s stock. 32 smart money investors tracked by Insider Monkey had positions in the company at the end of September, and held almost 10% of its shares. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC reported owning 3.99 million shares of Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) through its 13F for the third quarter.

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