Investing

Massive Carl Icahn Trade Highlights Recent Insider Selling: Mentor Graphics, Blackrock, UPS, Hasbro and More

Lee Jackson

Published: February 28, 2016 10:20 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:36 pm

Typically investors think of insider selling as a possible negative. In reality, after almost two months of negligible insider selling, this week was the first to show some substantial sales, and that means that insiders feel that the market rally is starting to return some value to overall stock prices. Needless to say, indiscriminate selling at lows is a negative, but we saw little of that this past week.

We cover insider selling every week at 24/7 Wall St., and we like to remind our readers that just because an individual or 10% institutional owner is selling stock, that is no cause for immediate alarm. Many top executives and even directors are compensated with stock and often sell just to diversify or purchase other assets.

Here are companies that reported notable insider selling this past week.

Mentor Graphics Corp. (NASDAQ: MENT) had one of Wall Street most influential activist investors selling last week, and selling in a big way. Carl Icahn sold a total of 8,015,145 shares at $18.12. The total for the trade came to a staggering $146 million. The interesting part of this trade is that the buyer of the stock was the company itself, which bought Icahn out of half of his total position. He remains the company’s largest shareholder. Mentor Graphics provides electronic design automation software and hardware solutions to automate the design, analysis and testing of electro-mechanical systems, electronic hardware and embedded systems software. The shares closed Friday at $18.99.

Blackrock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) had the chief operating officer and a managing director at the company selling shares this past week. The pair parted with a total of 13,783 shares at prices that ranged from $311.00 to $319.29. The total for the trade came to $4.4 million. BlackRock is a publicly owned investment manager that primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. It also manages accounts for corporate, public, union and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, foundations, charities, corporations, official institutions and banks. And it provides global risk management and advisory services. The shares closed on Friday at $313.92, so the timing looks solid.

24/7 Wall St.
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