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A record number of U.S. executives are selling shares in their companies, as corporate insiders from Goldman Sachs to Tesla and even Donald Trump’s own media group cash in on the stock market surge that fueled his election. What is after victory?
According to VerityData, the rate of so-called insider sales has reached a record high for any quarter in two decades. Sales by executives of companies in the Wilshire 5000 index include one-time profit-taking transactions as well as regular sales initiated by executives’ automated trading plans. The Wilshire 5000 is one of the broadest indexes of US companies.
While insider selling is common — especially as the stock market was already breaking records before Trump’s victory — the surge after Nov. 5 underscores how U.S. executives in their White House personally benefiting from their return before re-entry. The S&P 500 jumped 2.5 percent the day after the election, its best day in more than two years. The S&P 500 is up more than 24 percent this year.
Insider sales vs. purchases at financial institutions were last this high in November 2016 — the first time Trump was elected president. Sales among executives at industrial equipment companies rose to the highest level since 2017.
“With the end of the year and the election results, we’re getting this big bump in sales here,” said Ben Silverman, vice president of research at VerityData. He said domestic sales volumes were below average in the first three quarters of the year.
Insider sales are often a barometer of a company’s performance, and investors and analysts scrutinize them for clues about future results. But in a bullish market when insider selling becomes too much, the trends tend to be less indicative of bullish stock market moves, Silverman said.
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“Typically with sales, predictably, insiders are about two or three quarters early,” he said. “When they start to see a bubble in the market is when they try to generate liquidity more aggressively.”
At Goldman Sachs, four insiders — including executive vice president John Rogers, chief financial officer Dennis Coleman and board member Tom Montague — have sold more than $28 million since Nov. 6. Shares of Goldman have risen 12 percent since Election Day, taking advantage. Hopes for more integration and less financial regulation under a second Trump administration.
“We are pleased with the performance of our stock,” Goldman Sachs said in a statement. “Our senior leaders continue to have a significant investment in Goldman Sachs and its future. The sale is part of their overall ownership.
Evercore Vice Chair Ed Heyman sold his first stake in the boutique bank in the days after the election, netting more than $40mn. An Evercore spokeswoman said Hyman’s sale was purely for estate planning purposes.
Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja has sold $2 million since the election, and board director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson has sold $34.6 million. Shares of Tesla have risen 35 percent since the election, with founder Elon Musk playing a central role in shaping Trump’s second-term cabinet appointments. Tesla shares rose an additional 5.6 percent on Monday, closing at $338.74, after Bloomberg reported that the incoming Trump administration could ease regulations for self-driving cars.
Some Trump loyalists took advantage of the post-election market rally to cash out stocks. Three executives from Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind the president-elect’s social media site Truth Social, have made $16.2 million in sales since Nov. 8.
The day after the election, the chief executive of Axos Financial, the mid-sized U.S. bank that counts Trump as one of its biggest lenders, sold about $10.7 million worth of the company’s stock.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of Trump’s market crash was a donor to his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris. Palantir Technologies co-founder Alex Karp has sold nearly $900 million worth of stock since the election. The company’s shares surged 48 percent a day before the election, after it reported record quarterly earnings and raised its revenue forecast on rising demand for artificial intelligence software.
Swami Kalpathi, a finance professor at Texas Christian University, said uncertainty about Trump’s economic policies could prompt insiders to sell now.
With more tariffs, “there are going to be some losers. [and] Some industries may suffer badly”, he said. “We have had a good run-up. But the other story is that perhaps executives are anticipating a revision in equity prices.
Tesla and Palantir did not respond to requests for comment.
