I took a quick look at ALLE. Rather then a very right or very wrong picture, I'd say its more a, "Blah, there are more interesting small banks selling for lower PEs and paying higher dividends (on a percentage, not cash, basis) out there," situation. Regarding the insider buying into August, these guys are in for the l-o-n-g term and might have thought they were picking up more shares at bargain prices (compared to the yearly high).
Looking at the chart, it is only .50 from its yearly low, at 11 1/2 from a yearly high of 26 3/4. BUT, at 11 1/2 it still carries a PE of 20.18 which is not cheap by any means for a small bank, especially one whose earning for 9 months are slightly down from last year.
Their latest quarter EDGAR filing should be available pretty soon. Looking at the one from August, their salaries to employees are twice what they were a year ago. Take a look at it because it is more informative than what is available when clicking on the profile of ALLE on Yahoo!
BTW, one thing I look for these days in EDGAR filings of banks is a section on how they are dealing with Y2K and the impact a specific bank sees Y2K compliancy of their customers and suppliers on their performance. Nothing about Y2K is in the EDGAR filing for August. I'd wait and see what is mentioned in the next filing.
Lynn |
