Early Snowflake Backers Can Sell 37.9M Shares Today: What Investors Need To Know

Snowflake Inc SNOW could see fresh selling as the lock-up period ends on more than 37.9 million shares today, the company said in an SEC filing last week.

What Happened: Snowflake’s strong stock performance since its September listing has seen the stock appreciate by 123%. This has triggered a premature easing of restrictions or lock-up period allowing non-employee shareholders to sell up to 25% of their vested options, representing 37,904,494 shares.

Barron’s reports that Deutsche Bank analyst Patrick Colville repeated his Hold rating for Snowflake on Tuesday, cutting his price target to $270, from $335. As per Colville, the early lock-up expiration will increase the free float in Snowflake shares by 87%. 

“With Snowflake stock up almost 133% from its IPO price, we expect some investors to cash out as lock-ups expire. This could weigh on share price accretion from here,” Colville wrote.

Why It Matters: Private investors in SNOW are collectively sitting on more than $48 billion worth of shares, representing one of the largest hauls ever for early tech investors, according to a Financial Times report.

Venture capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures is one of the biggest winners from SNOW’s listing, holding a combined stake worth $13.3 billion held by the fund and its individual partners and affiliates, FT reports.

Board members, employees, and close affiliates of the data warehouse company have selling restrictions, which will prevent large shareholders such as Sutter Hill from immediately cashing out.

Michael Speiser led Sutter Hill’s investment in Snowflake in 2012. He controls shares worth $1.4 billion through trusts and his personal holdings.

Sutter Hill has built a large initial stake in Snowflake that is maintained through its later rounds of financing.

Price Action: SNOW shares fell 5.31% at $268.02 on Wednesday.

Photo courtesy: Alexey Klijatov via Wikimedia