Shares of SoFi (NASDAQ:SOFI) stock are in full focus following yet another insider purchase from CEO Anthony Noto. The CEO first reported purchasing 50,000 shares at an average price of $4.73 on May 4. In total, the transaction amounted to $236,705. Then, on May 8, he added another 30,000 shares at an average per-share price of $5.11, worth $153,513. Following the purchases, Noto now directly owns a total of 6.38 million shares.
Both sales come just after SoFi reported its first-quarter earnings on May 1, beating on both revenue and EPS. Revenue tallied in at $460.16 million, while EPS was a loss of five cents. Analysts were expecting revenue of $441 million and an EPS loss of seven cents.
CEO Anthony Noto Buys 30,000 Shares of SOFI Stock
Noto seems to have a knack for buying shares of his own company in times of turmoil, such as the ongoing regional bank crisis. After the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, fears of liquidity risk and bank runs ran rampant. However, that didn’t seem to bother Noto, as he reported purchasing 45,000 shares of SOFI shortly after. Following his recent 30,000 share purchase, the CEO has now purchased 305,000 shares this year.
On the other hand, Noto is the lone SoFi insider who has purchased shares on the open market this year. Excluding him, the last insider transaction is attributed to CTO Jeremy Rishel, who reported selling 81,000 shares at an average per-share price of $6.46 on March 8. Another insider, General Counsel Robert Lavet, reported selling 200,000 shares at an average price of $8.06 on February 2. No other insider has transacted with SOFI on the open market this year.
A point of concern that selling insiders may have is loan sales. SoFi “marks [its] loans with a baked-in gain on sale margin assumption, regardless of whether the loans are actually sold in the quarter,” said Wedbush analyst David Chiaverini. “We believe that SOFI not selling loans in 1Q could imply that gain on sale margins aren’t trending at similar elevated levels to those generated last year or that the market for loans may have weakened.”
On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
