Despite a lot of assurances earlier this week from Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) insiders that they would not be selling their shares when the IPO lockup expired, it seems not all of them were on the same page. Several Twitter executives unloaded a significant amount of their holdings, when the lockup that had been preventing them from doing so, expired today.
One prominent executive to take advantage of the chance to cash in on his holdings was Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer, Ali Rowghani. He sold 300,000 shares of his stake, raking in a profit of around $9.9 million dollars, according to the official filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. What is especially interesting is that Twitter stock is near an all time low at the moment, trading at almost half the value is was at the start of the year, so it is not a great time to sell.
Other executives also took the opportunity to collect some quick cash. The Corporate Counsel, Vijaya Gaddem and the Vice President of Finance, Luca Barrata, also reduced their holdings in the company. These sales, while not a complete surprise, come after the Chief Executive Officer, Dick Costolo, and co-founders Even Williams, and Jack Dorsey, all announced that they would be holding on to their entire stake after the lockup expired.
In spite of these insider sales, the stock still climbed around 4 percent to $31.96. The original IPO was issued at $26 back in November, and the stock did well last year. The gradual decline in the stock price is caused by investor concerns over the last two quarters performance results which show Twitter’s user growth is decelerating.
