Apple Inc., Facebook Inc, Plug Power Inc: Latest Insider Selling Activities

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares are near their all-time high, and Plug Power stock has rallied a whopping 226% year-to-date. All three stocks have seen insider selling in the last few weeks. On August 20, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer donated 40,000 shares of the social networking giant to charity. Based on the current market price, those shares are worth close to $3 million.

Apple Inc., Facebook Inc, Plug Power Inc: Latest Insider Selling Activities

Facebook director sells 380,560 shares

The latest Facebook executive to sell shares of the company is director Peter Thiel. On Wednesday, August 27, Mr Thiel sold 380,560 shares at an average price of $74.82, for a total transaction value of $28.47 million. Following the sale, Peter Thiel is left with no Facebook shares. What’s more, Facebook stock witnessed a significant decline in short interest last month. According to Nasdaq, short interest in the stock fell 6.5% from 37.77 million on July 31 to 35.3 million on August 15. Based on the average daily trading volume of 31.63 million shares, it will take short-sellers just 1.1 days to cover their positions. Currently, only 1.8% of Facebook shares are sold short. 

A small investment in Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) has proved extremely profitable for the French company Air Liquide (EPA:AI), which also sits on Plug Power’s board. Last year, the French industrial gas supplier invested $2.6 million in preference shares of the U.S. fuel cell company. On August 26, Air Liquide converted 50% of the preference shares into 5.5 million common stock and sold them for a total of $32 million. Air Liquide keeps the remaining 50% preference stock.

Apple executives not very interested in selling their stakes

In contrast, Apple executives have been reluctant to unload their stakes in the company. The company chairman and director Arthur Levinson offloaded 70,000 shares of Apple at $94.38 per share on August 8. Levinson now holds 1,138,886 shares of the company. Before that, Daniel Riccio, SVP for hardware engineering, sold 4,291 shares on July 23. Riccio now holds no Apple shares.

Apple shares fell 4.32% to $98.83 at 11:45 AM EDT on Wednesday.

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