SoFi Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Anthony Noto is continuing his buying spree, scooping up another $240,000 worth of the financial-technology company’s stock Thursday amid pressure on banking names.
Noto purchased 45,000 shares of SoFi
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at an average price of $5.3936 Thursday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That buying builds on $995,000 in stock purchases that Noto made on March 10 as SoFi’s stock sank in the immediate aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. He purchased 180,000 shares then for an average price of $5.5283.
He bought nearly $1.24 million in stock across the two March purchasing sprees.
Read more: SoFi CEO Noto makes ‘opportunistic’ million-dollar stock purchase as SVB crisis fuels selloff
SoFi shares closed at $6.47 on March 8 — the last trading session before news of Silicon Valley Bank’s troubles spooked investors in the financial sector.
Noto, a veteran of Twitter, Goldman Sachs and the National Football League, was also a big buyer of SoFi’s stock back in December. That month, he purchased $7.4 million in stock at prices south of $4.60 a share. SoFi’s stock closed as high as $7.72 in early February.
SoFi’s stock was trading at $5.40 in Friday’s midday action.
Noto’s purchase comes as executives and insiders at other financial companies have been buying up their beaten-down shares amid the SVB fallout. Ben Silverman, who tracks insider buying and selling as the research director at VerityData, told MarketWatch Thursday that he’s seen recent buying at upwards of 100 companies, mainly small and midsize regional banks.
Insiders at some bigger names have gotten in on the action as well. Charles Schwab Corp.
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Chief Executive Walter Bettinger and a group of other executives and board members at the financial company spent about $7 million on stock purchases this week.
And a board member from Fifth Third Bancorp
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made a $1.27 million purchase of the Cincinnati-based banking-services company’s stock on March 13.