Five Palantir Technologies (PLTR, Financial) company officers and directors sold portions of their stake in the software company in the new year, according to data from Finbold’s insider tracker. The millions in gains were generated by these transactions that took place at the stock’s peak near yearly highs.
The first notable sale this year when was initiated by Palantir’s Chief Financial Officer David Glazer on January 2. Glazer unloads 96,273 shares, making seven million dollars. Chief Revenue Officer Ryan Taylor followed that up on the same day by executing an even larger transaction himself, selling 483,987 shares at $36 million.
Director Alexander Moore also divested 20,000 shares on January 2, bringing in $1.4 million. Director Lauren Friedman Stat sold another 1400 shares on January 2 for an average of $76.29, for $137322.
The wave of insider activity ended with the sale on January 7 by director Alexandra Shiff. Shiff is selling 4,000 shares at an average price of $71.63 to raise $286,540.
At the same time, Palantir is a big player in artificial intelligence, an area that has seen heightened interest. Insider sales are not indicative of a bad thing, but insider sales tend to draw the red mist of investor scrutiny when Palantir’s shares start to approach peak valuation levels.
Insider transactions are always revealed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Therefore, they act as an important signal for those market participants who are monitoring executive confidence in the company’s performance. They also continue to watch what Palantir’s insiders are doing, which is obviously associated with the AI boom.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
