With the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 at all-time highs, and the Nasdaq closing in on the high from 2000, the fact that insiders continue to take advantage of the move in the markets should come as no surprise. In sharp contrast to a short month ago, when the indexes were one bad day from a full 10% correction, the surge upward has happy sellers streaming to take some stock off the table.
We cover insider selling every week at 24/7 Wall St., and we like to remind readers that insiders selling is not necessarily a negative for a company. Many corporate insiders have much of their assets dedicated to company stock, and often sell for diversification, estate and tax planning, and often just to raise cash.
Here is this past week’s top insider selling trades that hit our screens.
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) has seen some massive insider selling recently. Earlier this month many of the firm’s C suite executives, and others, sold significant amounts of the stock of the social media company. While some insider selling could, and should be expected, we covered the story in depth this week and raised the question whether the sheer amount of selling is holding the stock back. Shares closed trading Friday around $40.
ALSO READ: Insider Buying Heats Up in Spite of Big Market Rally
Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG) saw a big sale of stock from right at the top. The CEO sold a block of 450,000 shares of the stock at $71.70. The total for the sell ticket came to $32.3 million. With the stock trading at $74.42 at Friday’s close, he may have wanted to wait one more week.
Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) has continued to show up on our screens, and the legendary founder continues to liquidate stock. Charles Schwab, the founder of the well-known discount broker, sold another million shares of stock this week, at prices that ranged from $28.40 to $28.80. The total for the sale came to $28.5 million. Shares ended the week at $28.28.
Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN) saw a significant share sale by the vice chairman of the company last week. The total number of shares sold was 116,586, at $64.50 apiece. That came to $7.5 million. Cerner designs, develops, markets, installs, hosts and supports health care information technology, health care devices, hardware and content solutions for health care organizations. The stock was trading Friday at $63.60, so a well-timed sale.
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) saw insider selling again this week. The president of the storage giant sold 66,000 shares of the stock at $30.50. The total of the sale came to an even $2 million. EMC shares were trading on Friday close at $29.90.
ALSO READ: Is Twitter Insider Selling Holding Back Its Stock?
Other companies that saw insider selling this week included: Rockwood Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ROC), Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ: CATY), J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT), Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) and ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW).
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