As Insider-Sales Hit Record Highs, Travis Kalanick Dumps 20% Of Uber Stake After Lockup

Travis Kalanick, Uber’s ousted co-founder, has followed down the path of every other Wall Street insider this year: dump stock amid concerns the longest bull market in equities could be nearing an end. 

Insiders are dumping stock at the fastest pace in two decades. Bloomberg reports Kalanick sold 20.3 million shares worth $547 million last week, according to a Friday filing.

Uber’s 180-day lockup period restricting insiders and pre-IPO investors from selling expired last Wednesday. 

Uber shares in the last five months have plunged 43% to the 26-handle.

Shares have dropped 22% over the previous seven days ahead of the expiration, which underlines how investors steer cleared of the stock ahead of insider dumping. 

Kalanick still serves on Uber’s board; he owns 78 million shares, or about a 4.6% stake, worth $3.5 billion.

Kalanick disposed of stock through a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which allows him to sell a certain amount of shares within a pre-determined timeframe to avoid controversy.

Across all of Wall Street, insiders dumped $19 billion of stock in their companies through mid-September. Annualized, this puts insiders on track to hit $26 billion for the year, would be the highest dollar amount on insiders dumping since right before the Dot Com bust in 2000. 

Kalanick is dumping stock like every other insider on Wall Street. What do they know?