Corporate insiders are loading up on their own shares following banking turmoil - and that's a positive sign for the stock market

• More than 1,000 executives and directors at over 600 companies bought their stock in March.
• That's the most in nearly a year, according to Washington Service data compiled by the Wall Street Journal.

Stock purchases by corporate insiders surged amid last month's banking crisis, a potentially bullish sign for the market.

More than 1,000 executives and directors at over 600 companies bought their company's stock in March, the most on both counts since May 2022, according to Washington Service data compiled by the Wall Street Journal.

And the ratio of buyers to sellers was the highest since September, with purchases totaling about $800 million versus sales of $3.4 billion.

While insiders often plan stock transactions in advance, the surge in purchases is seen as an optimistic signal that the sell-off in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse was overblown.

Bank stocks in particular were hit hard by the biggest bank failure since the Great Financial Crisis, though SVB was particularly exposed to the tech sector and startups.

Insiders at financial firms accounted for more than half of the stock purchases, the most for the sector in at least two years, according to Washington Service, an insider-trading data analytics provider.

Among the notable buyers was Charles Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger, who bought about $3 million of the brokerage's shares.

Separate data from investment-research firm VerityData showed that last month's insider stock purchases were concentrated at regional lenders like PacWest and Fifth Third. PacWest sold off hard in March along with shares of First Republic after SVB crashed, as fears of widespread bank weakness drove investors away.

Bank stocks have stabilized recently but haven't returned to levels seen before the SVB crash, with the SPDR S&P Bank exchange-traded fund down 18% so far this year.

Among non-banks that saw insider purchases, Domino's Pizza CEO Russell Weiner bought about $1 million at the beginning of March, VerityData found, according to the WSJ.

Insider buying has been slow in April as the period before quarterly earnings reports come out limits those transactions, VerityData noted.