In the last year, many First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) insiders sold a substantial stake in the company which may have sparked shareholders' attention. 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, shareholders should take a deeper look if several insiders are selling stock over a specific time period.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

View our latest analysis for First Financial Bancorp

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At First Financial Bancorp

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the Board, Claude Davis, for US$641k worth of shares, at about US$25.65 per share. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. The good news is that this large sale was at well above current price of US$19.12. So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it.

Over the last year we saw more insider selling of First Financial 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 click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

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First Financial Bancorp Insiders Are Selling The Stock

The last quarter saw substantial insider selling of First Financial Bancorp shares. In total, Executive VP & Chief Corporate Banking Officer Richard Dennen dumped US$251k worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any purchases whatsoever. This may suggest that some insiders think that the shares are not cheap.

Insider Ownership Of First Financial Bancorp

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It appears that First Financial Bancorp insiders own 2.2% of the company, worth about US$40m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Do The First Financial Bancorp Insider Transactions Indicate?

An insider sold First Financial Bancorp shares recently, but they didn't buy any. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. But since First Financial Bancorp is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. Insiders own shares, but we're still pretty cautious, given the history of sales. We'd practice some caution before buying! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing First Financial Bancorp. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with First Financial Bancorp (including 1 which is significant).

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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.