Twilio CEO Insider Buying Drives Shares Higher

Twilio Inc TWLO’s post-earnings plunge sent shares of the cloud services stock to new all-time lows, but a couple of top company executives certainly aren’t worried. Twilio just filed insider trading disclosures revealing CEO Jeff Lawson and Twilio board member and executive vice president of NetSuite Golbal Business Unit for Oracle Corporation ORCL Jim McGeever have been snatching up shares of Twilio on the dip.

According to the filings, Lawson purchased 100,000 shares at an average price of $23.43 this week, while McGeever bought only 10,000 shares at an average price of $23.19. Twilio shares remain down 17.6 percent in 2017, but the insider buying could go a long way in renewing market confidence following a shaky start to the year.

Twilio investors were spooked after the company reported revenue from Uber, one of its two largest clients, will decline moving forward as the company is “changing the way they do messaging.”

Related Link: Twilio's New 'Unexpected' Relationship With Uber

“Actions sometimes speak louder than words, in our opinion, and we really like seeing this vote of confidence from Mr. Lawson and Mr. McGreever,” JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens says of the insider buying.

Walravens points out that McGreever purchased NetSuite stock at $6.75 per share back in 2008. NetSuite was then acquired by Oracle for $109.00 per share just last year.

JMP maintains its Market-Outperform rating for Twilio stock. The firm’s $33 price target is based on a 6.6x 2018 estimated EV/revenue multiple, in line with market peers.

JMP is hosting an investor meeting with Twilio Chief Financial Officer Lee Kirkpatrick on May 22.