Pacific Premier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPBI) shareholders may have reason to be concerned, as several insiders sold their shares over the past year. When evaluating insider transactions, knowing whether insiders are buying versus if they selling is usually more beneficial, as the latter can be open to many interpretations. However, if numerous insiders are selling, shareholders should investigate more.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we do think it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing.

Pacific Premier Bancorp Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Senior EVP & Deputy CFO, Lori Wright, sold US$385k worth of shares at a price of US$29.62 per share. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. It's of some comfort that this sale was conducted at a price well above the current share price, which is US$21.40. So it may not tell us anything about how insiders feel about the current share price.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$30k for 1.24k shares. On the other hand they divested 38.84k shares, for US$977k. Over the last year we saw more insider selling of Pacific Premier Bancorp shares, than buying. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

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Insiders At Pacific Premier Bancorp Have Sold Stock Recently

We've seen more insider selling than insider buying at Pacific Premier Bancorp recently. In total, Senior EVP & Deputy CFO Lori Wright sold US$110k worth of shares in that time. Meanwhile insiders bought US$30k worth , as we said above . Because the selling vastly outweighs the buying, we'd say this is a somewhat bearish sign.

Insider Ownership

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 2.3% of Pacific Premier Bancorp shares, worth about US$48m. 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 Pacific Premier Bancorp Tell Us?

The stark truth for Pacific Premier Bancorp is that there has been more insider selling than insider buying in the last three months. Despite some insider buying, the longer term picture doesn't make us feel much more positive. Insider ownership isn't particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. To assist with this, we've discovered 2 warning signs that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Pacific Premier Bancorp.

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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.