Charles Schwab Corp. executives and directors extracted nearly $7 million worth of the financial-services giant’s beaten-down stock on Tuesday and Wednesday in an apparent vote of confidence in the company’s ability to weather ongoing bank losses. Chief Executive Walter Bettinger led the way, buying 50,000 shares of Schwab SCHW, +5.06% at an average price of $59.31, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Tuesday. He paid a total of $2.97 million. Two fellow executives, President Richard Wurster and Chief Financial Officer Peter Crawford, each bought 5,000 Schwab shares on Tuesday. Wurster bought at an average price of $57.28, for a total of about $286,000, while Crawford bought at an average price of $57.96, for about $290,000. Director John Adams Jr. joined them on Tuesday by buying 5,000 shares, bringing the total to $297,000 at an average price of $59.31. Directors Todd Ricketts and Stephen Ellis were more aggressive in their buying, with Ricketts buying 10,000 shares at an average price of $56.79 a share on Tuesday, paying a total of $567,862. Ellis, whose Schwab biography also lists him as a managing director of private-equity firm TPG, bought 34,387 shares on Wednesday, following his purchase of 6,757 Schwab shares on Tuesday. He saw an average price of $56.08 per share for his Tuesday haul, spending about $379,000 on his stock purchases that day. He realized an average price of $58.26 in his Wednesday buying spree, paying just over $2 million for that batch of shares. Executives and directors spent a combined $4.785 million on their Tuesday share purchases, while Ellis bought another $2 million on Wednesday. All executives bought at an average price below $60; Shares of Schwab closed at $76.20 on March 8, before a sharp sell-off in many banking names triggered fears fueled by Silicon Valley banks. See also: PacWest Bancorp Insiders Lose $900,000 After Buying Stock Last Week Schwab, perhaps best known for its brokerage business, also offers banking services. Along with Schwab’s monthly business update on Monday, Crawford shared why he thought the company remained in “good shape.” “Our approach to managing our assets is quite different from traditional banks,” he wrote, noting that Schwab’s “bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio is about 10% and almost all loans are over-collateralized by first-lien mortgages or securities.” See more: Here’s why Charles Schwab thinks Wall Street is unfair Schwab shares rose nearly 5% in Wednesday’s session, leading the S&P 500 SPX, -0.70% gainers.
