Insiders At Quality, Reliable Dividend-Paying Banks Buying Shares

2020 has proven a disaster for bank stock owners.
Bank valuations have plummeted.
This post screens for best banks for shareholders over the past 15 years.
From this list, 15 are identified that increased dividends annually for more than 15 years.
Of those 15, seven have seen a spike in insider buying since March.

These are Times that Try Long-Term Bank Investors' Souls
On the eve of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote "These are the times that try men's souls." He easily could have been writing about bank investing over the past 15 years.
So far 2020 has proven a disaster for bank stocks as chart 1 shows. The SPDR Regional Banking ETF (KRE) is down 45% as is the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE). The Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF), in comparison, is booming, down “only” 32% year-to-date. But the XLF has only 12 banks among its top 25 holdings, so the comparison is not apples to apples.
Chart 1

Even the Best Banks Have Got Beaten Up
Even the historically best performing banks have gotten beaten up this year. Chart 2 shows the 52 banks that recorded the best 15-year total returns among all banks for the year ending 2019. These “stars” as a group are doing better than the overall industry, but they are still down a whopping 38% year-to-date. Every bank on the list is down year-to-date.
Chart 2

Bank Optimists vs. Pessimists
If you read my March 16 article entitled "12 Charts: The Case for Buffett Buying Bank Stocks at Today's Valuations," you might recall the chart below showing the relationship between return and valuation.
Optimists see today's rock-bottom valuations and envision 400% total return 10 years down the road.
Chart 3

Bank pessimists, on the other hand, point out that bank investing is too risky, too unpredictable, too volatile, too tied to the economy, too vulnerable to changing technology and emerging competitors, too customer-unfriendly, too dependent on the... Read more