Executives Sell Over $20M Of 5 Stocks

Although US stocks closed higher on the first trading day of February, there were a few notable insider trades.

When insiders sell shares, it indicates their concern in the company’s prospects or that they view the stock as being overpriced. Either way, this signals an opportunity to go short on the stock. Insider sales should not be taken as the only indicator for making an investment or trading decision. At best, it can lend conviction to a selling decision.

Below is a look at a few recent notable insider sales. For more, check out Benzinga's insider transactions platform.

Palo Alto Networks

• The Trade: Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW EVP, Chief Technology Officer Nir Zuk disposed a total of 12,000 shares at an average price of $510.38. The insider received $6.12 million as a result of the transaction.
• What’s Happening: The company’s stock declined around 6% over the previous month.
• What Palo Alto Networks Does: Palo Alto Networks is a pure-play cybersecurity vendor that sells security appliances, subscriptions, and support into enterprises, government entities, and service providers.

Western Digital

• The Trade: Western Digital Corporation WDC Director Paula A Price sold a total of 4,150 shares at an average price of $51.82. The insider received $215.05 thousand from selling those shares.
• What’s Happening: The company recently posted upbeat quarterly results.
• What Western Digital Does: Western Digital is a leading vertically-integrated supplier of data storage solutions, spanning both hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs).

Also check out this: NextEra Energy and 2 other stocks bought by insiders

Visa

• The Trade: Visa Inc. V Chairman and CEO Alfred Kelly Jr sold a total of 9,000 shares at an average price of $224.90. The insider received $2.02 million as a result of the transaction. The insider also acquired a total of 6000 shares.
• What’s Happening: Visa recently reported better-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results.
• What Visa Does: Visa is the largest payment processor in the world. In fiscal 2021, it processed over $10 trillion in purchase transactions.

Adobe

• The Trade: Adobe Inc. ADBE EVP, Gen. Counsel & Secretary Dana Rao sold a total of 5,300 shares at an average price of $507.25. The insider received $2.69 million from selling those shares.
• What’s Happening: Deutsche Bank recently maintained Adobe with a Buy and lowered the price target from $715 to $660.
• What Adobe Does: Adobe provides content creation, document management, and digital marketing and advertising software and services to creative professionals and marketers for creating, managing, delivering, measuring, optimizing and engaging with compelling content multiple operating systems, devices and media.

Cohen & Steers

• The Trade: Cohen & Steers, Inc. CNS Director Martin Cohen sold a total of 120,000 shares at an average price of $80.20. The insider received around $9.62 million from selling those shares.
• What’s Happening: The company recently reported upbeat Q4 earnings.
• What Cohen & Steers Does: Cohen & Steers is a niche asset manager concentrating on real estate securities. The firm invests mainly in the equity shares of real estate investment trusts, with holdings in domestic and international real estate securities accounting for 65% of its $106.6 billion in managed assets at the end of 2021.