Asana co-founder and CEO Dustin Moskovitz has bought $97.4 million of stock this month alone.
Courtesy Asana
Work-management software company Asana has seen shares rocket in June, and co-founder and CEO Dustin Moskovitz has been scooping up stock on the way up.
Asana (ticker: ASAN) stock has gained 70.6% so far in June, trouncing the single-digit gains of the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite, both of which have recently set record highs. Asana stock got a jolt early this month when it reported upside results for the fiscal first quarter ended April 30. The company also boosted guidance for the January 2022 fiscal year.
Moskovitz has paid $97.4 million from June 8-23 for 2.03 million shares, an average per-share price of $47.99. According to forms he filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Moskovitz made the purchases through a so-called Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Such plans automatically execute transactions when parameters preset by insiders, such as price and volume, are met. The plan is intended to remove any bias an insider may have from the potential knowledge of nonpublic information. Moskovitz now owns 3.15 million shares in a personal account, and another 4.15 million shares through a trust.
Asana didn’t make Moskovitz available for comment on his stock purchases. Before this month, he hadn’t bought any shares on the open market. Asana stock began trading publicly in a direct listing in September.
RBC analyst Matthew Hedberg wrote in a June 3 report that Asana’s fiscal first-quarter results showed that the company was off to “a very strong start to its year.” He reiterated an Outperform rating and raised the price target to $45 from $39. “The company is reinvesting upside back into the model, as it looks to become the leader of the long-term, high-growth work-management space,” Hedberg added.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
