Insider Buying: The CEO of FlatexDEGIRO Just Bought €2.2 Mil Worth of Stock

Top-level insiders such as C-suite executives tend to have a good understanding of their companies’ operating activities. If they’re buying company stock, it’s often a sign that the outlook for the stock is attractive.

In this report, we are going to highlight some interesting buying activity from a top-level insider at FlatexDEGIRO AG (FTK:GR). FlatexDEGIRO is a European FinTech company that specializes in securities trading and transaction processing. It currently has over two million customers across 16 countries. The company is listed on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra and has a market cap of €997.25 million at present.

Large CEO Purchase

Our data shows that between June 22 and June 23, CEO Frank Niehage purchased 250,000 FTK shares at an average price of €8.86 per share. This trading activity cost the insider around €2.2 million and increased his holding to 1.19 million shares.

Financial Services Experience

Mr. Niehage has vast experience in the financial services industry. Before joining flatexDEGIRO, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. Before this, he was CEO of Bank Sarasin AG, where he was instrumental in the growth of the bank. Given his background, he is likely to have a strong understanding of his company’s prospects. It’s therefore notable that he has upped his stake in the company by 27%.

It’s worth pointing out that Mr. Niehage is not the only insider to buy stock recently. Between June 21 and June 23, Chief Process Officer Steffen Jentsch purchased 28,360 shares at an average price of €8.81 per share, spending approximately €250,000 on stock.

Solid Growth

FlatexDEGIRO’s recent Q1 results were encouraging.

For the period, revenues amounted to €98.3 million, an increase of 12.1% on the previous quarter. Meanwhile, commission income and interest income rose 28% and 20.5% respectively, with the latter boosted by higher interest rates from the European Central Bank (ECB) as well as increased interest rates for margin loans at flatex and DEGIRO.

At the end of the quarter, the group had 2.50 million customers, an increase of 4.2% compared to year end 2022 and of 13.2% compared to Q1 2022, and assets held under custody of €45.1 billion, up 14.1% from the end of 2022.

In light of this solid growth, and the fact that the stock is now starting to recover after a long period of weakness, we see the insider buying here as a bullish development.