Anyone interested in First Business Financial Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:FBIZ) should probably be aware that the Chief Information Officer, Daniel Ovokaitys, recently divested US$263k worth of shares in the company, at an average price of US$54.55 each. The eyebrow raising move amounted to a reduction of 38% in their holding.

Check out our latest analysis for First Business Financial Services

First Business Financial Services Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The CEO & Director, Corey Chambas, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$2.0m worth of shares at a price of US$48.81 each. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of US$55.45, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. It is worth noting that this sale was only 24% of Corey Chambas's holding.

In the last twelve months insiders purchased 592.00 shares for US$23k. But they sold 69.76k shares for US$3.3m. All up, insiders sold more shares in First Business Financial Services than they bought, over the last year. They sold for an average price of about US$47.58. It's not too encouraging to see that insiders have sold at below the current price. Since insiders sell for many reasons, we wouldn't put too much weight on it. 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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Insider Ownership Of First Business Financial Services

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. First Business Financial Services insiders own about US$26m worth of shares. That equates to 5.8% of the company. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.

So What Does This Data Suggest About First Business Financial Services Insiders?

Insiders haven't bought First Business Financial Services stock in the last three months, but there was some selling. And our longer term analysis of insider transactions didn't bring confidence, either. But since First Business Financial Services is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. Insider ownership isn't particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. We're in no rush to buy! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing First Business Financial Services. While conducting our analysis, we found that First Business Financial Services has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.

But note: First Business Financial Services may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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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