Five Star Bank parent announces stock-buyback program

WARSAW, N.Y. — Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISI), parent of Five Star Bank, recently announced that its board of directors has approved a stock-repurchase program for up to nearly 802,000 shares of its common stock, or about 5 percent of the company’s outstanding common shares.

The buyback program permits shares to be repurchased in open-market transactions and pursuant to any trading plan that may be adopted in accordance with federal regulations, Financial Institutions said in a release.

The banking company said the timing and number of shares it will buy back will depend on a variety of factors including price, corporate and regulatory requirements, market conditions, and other corporate-liquidity requirements and priorities. 

Five Star Bank, based in Warsaw in Wyoming County, has about 50 branches throughout Western and Central New York. Its CNY branches include offices in Auburn, Seneca Falls, Geneva, Ovid, Horseheads, and Elmira.

Financial Institutions and its subsidiaries employ about 630 people. The banking company generated $23.4 million in net income in the first nine months of this year, down from nearly $34.7 million a year ago.