Patrick Rusnak (Insider Trades), executive vice president and CFO of PacWest Bancorp (PACW), bought 2,400 shares of the company on Oct. 21. The average price per share was $43.09 for a total transaction cost of $103,416. PacWest Bancorp is a bank holding company with over $21 billion in assets with one wholly-owned subsidiary, Pacific Western Bank. Pacific Western provides commercial banking services, including real estate, construction, and commercial loans, and comprehensive deposit and treasury management services to small and medium-sized businesses. PacWest has a market cap of $5.41 billion and a P/S ratio of 5.48.
PacWest insider buy and sell numbers and volume increased from 2012 to 2015. There was one insider sale totaling 12,000 shares of the company in 2012; for comparison, there were 10 insider sales totaling 374,699 shares of the company in January to October 2015 alone. There was one insider buy totaling 1,000 shares in 2012, and two insider buys totaling 4,800 shares in 2015. 
Rusnak made two transactions with the company, buying 4,800 shares during this time. Rusnak bought 2,400 shares for $42.49 on Oct. 19. John Eggmeyer (Insider Trades), PACW director, sold 59,500 shares of the company for $45.04 per share on Oct. 13. For more information about insider transactions with the company, click here.
The company announced net earnings of $69.6 million, or 68 cents per diluted share for the third quarter of 2015. Annual revenue for PACW increased 19.53% since 2010. On Oct. 7, PacWest Bancorp announced the completion of its merger with Square 1 Financial Inc., effective starting the previous day. Square 1 Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square 1 Financial, is being merged with and into PacWest’s banking subsidiary, Pacific Western Bank. Matt Wagner, CEO of PacWest and Pacific Western Bank, commented that the merger with Square 1, “creates a stronger bank with a substantially improved core deposit base with excellent future growth prospects and better positioning for rising interest rates.” Square 1 Bank will operate as a division of Pacific Western upon completion of the merger. Each share of Square 1 common stock was converted into the right to receive 0.5997 of a share of PacWest common stock and each outstanding Square 1 equity award was settled in cash. PacWest Bancorp also announced a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents per common share payable Aug. 28 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Aug. 17. Dividends per share increased 132.7% since 2010. 
According to GuruFocus.com information, PacWest Bancorp has a business predictability rank of 1 out of 5 stars. For more information about business predictability rank, click here.
There was one guru transaction with PACW in the third quarter of 2015. Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) reduced his stake in the company by 0.72%, selling 15,771 shares at an average per share price of $44.82. The total estimated gain of the holding since the second quarter of 2014 is 8%. For more information about guru transactions with PACW, click here.
For more stock trades of gurus in real time, visit GuruFocus’ Real Time Picks, a Premium Feature. Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Try it free for 7 days here.
