Twitter Inc co-founder Evan Williams and his wife control a foundation, which raised $46.7m last month from the sale of Twitter stock that Williams gifted to the organization, revels a new public filing. On Wednesday, Twitter closed down 0.47% at $25.41.
Williams still the biggest individual shareholder
On Nov. 27, Obvious LLC (the firm controlled by Williams) gave away almost 2.8m shares for $0 apiece. If we value the shares on Tuesday’s close price, it comes to $70.8m. As per the SEC filing, the Sara & Evan Williams Foundation acquired 1.85m of those shares at no cost.
And, three days after, the foundation sold those shares at an average price of $25.2527. As of now, it is not known, to whom Williams gifted the remaining shares. Even after the philanthropy, William is left with 7% Twitter stake worth $1bn making him the firms biggest individual shareholder, says MarketWatch.
Williams, a former Twitter Inc CEO, was on the search committee that appointed Jack Dorsey as the firms CEO, for the second time in October. After the hiring of Dorsey, Williams said in a blog post, “I honestly didn’t think we’d land on Jack when we started unless he could step away from Square. But ultimately, we decided it was worth it.”
Other recent insider transactions at Twitter
Twitter’s Senior VP Kevin Weil, sold 4,193 shares on Dec 1. The transaction was revealed in the SEC filing on Dec. Weil sold the shares at $25.17, and the total transaction was worth $105,553.74. Separately, Weil also sold 5,052 shares on Oct 15th. The shares were sold at $29.77 for a total value of $150,398.04. After this transaction, the VP was still left with 954,699 shares valued at $28,421,389.23, says a filing with the SEC.
On Nov. 2nd, CFO Anthony Noto acquired 5,230 shares of the firm at an average price of $29.09 per share, and for a total value of $152,140.70. Noto now owns 1,285,260 Twitter shares worth $37,388,213.40.
Many analysts have come up with their verdict on Twitter Inc in recent months. In a report on Oct 28th, Morgan Stanley lowered the price target on the stock from $24 to $22, and gave an “underweight” rating.
Moffett Nathanson, in a note on Nov 16th, also reduced the price target from $30.00 to $29.00, and gave a “neutral” rating to the stock. Oppenheimer gave “market perform” rating to Twitter, in a report on Oct 29th. Presently, Twitter has an average rating of “hold,” and a consensus price target of $36.40.
