CEO Bets on NerdWallet Stock Rebound

By Trey Thoelcke Published Feb 3, 9:11AM EST

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CEO Bets on NerdWallet Stock Rebound — © apichon_tee / iStock via Getty Images

You can learn a lot by following the behavior of company insiders when it comes to how they handle positions in their own company. People may sell for many reasons (buying a house, paying for college, or getting ready for retirement). They generally only buy for one reason: to make more money.

The chief executive officer is often one of the largest and best-informed shareholders in any company. Let’s see whether NerdWallet Inc. (NASDAQ: NRDS) CEO Tim Chen has been increasing or decreasing his shares over the past year and whether he knows something we don’t.

What You Need to Know About NerdWallet

Comparing financial products

NerdWallet is a consumer finance company that operates a digital platform that provides consumer-driven advice about personal finance by connecting individuals and small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) with financial product providers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The company’s platform offers guidance to consumers through educational content, tools and calculators, and product marketplaces, as well as the NerdWallet app for various financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing, and student loans.

NerdWallet was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco. Nearby Silicon Valley is the home to such tech giants as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META), as well as many startups and smaller companies.

Competitors of NerdWallet include Bankrate, Intuit Mint, LendingTree Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE), and SmartAsset.

Chen has been CEO since 2009 and is also a co-founder and the chair of the board of directors.

The company was on track to have over $600 million in revenue for 2023 and has a market capitalization of more than $1.2 billion. The stock was on a rollercoaster last year but ended more than 53% higher. The S&P 500 was up over 23% in that time. However, the stock is trading hands about 37% or so lower since its initial public offering in 2021.

How NerdWallet’s CEO Is Trading

Buying or selling?

One year ago, Chen owned almost 31.9 million shares, worth almost $282.6 million. Today, he owns around 32.0 million shares, which is a stake of more than 40%. That increase in the total boosted the value of the stake by over 40% to nearly $396.6 million.

Shares a Year Ago	Shares Today	% Change
31,855,444	3,2002,852	0.46%

CEO Tim Chen’s slowly growing stake suggests he is cautiously confident, even though the stock is trading below its IPO price and has a wide 52-week range of $6.38 to $21.74. Note that the share price has gained about 148% since its post-IPO low last October. Also note that the company’s fourth-quarter report is due out on February 14. Insiders are typically prohibited from buying or selling shares until after quarterly results are released. It may be interesting to see what Chen and other insiders do afterward.

Other internal shareholders to watch include NerdWallet Vice President Samuel Yount. He owns 2.4% of shares outstanding, worth about $27.9 million. Kevin Yuann is the chief business officer and owns 0.2% of shares outstanding, worth about $2.5 million, while Chief Product Officer John Caine owns less than 0.2% of shares outstanding, worth about $1.9 million. Note that Yuann sold shares earlier in the year. (These 19 executives pay themselves over $150 million a year.)

About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.