published Nov 28th 2016, 1:55 pm, by Luke Kawa and Drew Singer

(Bloomberg) —
On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump lambasted Hillary Clinton for profiting off speeches delivered to Wall Street bankers. In an ironic twist, the real estate mogul’s victory has fostered the exact opposite dynamic, enriching bankers across the U.S., from the nation’s biggest financial institutions to small regional players.

A steepening yield curve, which buoys bank profitability, and the potential for deregulation has helped the Financial Select Sector SPDR exchange traded fund (XLF) attract record inflows and far outperform the S&P 500 Index since Nov. 8.

That’s not the only financial benefit that has fallen to industry insiders since the surprising vote. The most captivating tale involves the more than 1 million stock options granted to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives that were poised to expire below their strike price just before Thanksgiving, but suddenly became in-the-money after a post-election surge in the company’s stock. As of Nov. 18, employees at the bank had sold more than $205 million of stock.

And in a note to clients on Monday, Raymond James analyst David J. Long observed that the Goldman execs were far from the only insiders to cash in after the furious rally in bank shares since the Nov. 8.

“Of the 132 banks in the Raymond James coverage universe, 51 (or 39 percent) experienced some degree of insider selling activity since November 9 (though our analysis only captures activity through November 18),” he writes. “Interestingly, five banks (not pictured) – American National Bank, German American Bancorp, Home Bancorp, Riverview Bancorp, and Bancorp Bank – had some insider buying and no insider selling during the period.”

Long produced a table tracking the amount of insider selling at the banks in Raymond James’ coverage universe that totaled more than a quarter of a million dollars, which excludes activity pertaining to options being exercised.

That’s over $300 million in insider selling since the election from this group of banks alone.

“While we believe investors should take recent selling activity with a grain of salt given that it could be a function of profit taking following mixed performance earlier in the year or year-end tax planning, it is worthwhile to consider when examining valuation,” he concluded.

To contact the authors of this story: Luke Kawa in New York at lkawa@bloomberg.net Drew Singer in New York at dsinger28@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joe Weisenthal at jweisenthal@bloomberg.net

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