Twitter stock has seen a massive decline recently, forcing CEO Jack Dorsey to come forward for a rescue. Now he has raised his stake in the company, buying about $7 million worth of stock, according to regulatory filings on Tuesday.
Dorsey buy Twitter, sells Square
Appropriately, Dorsey tweeted about the stake on Valentine’s Day, adding the hashtag “Love Twitter.” He purchased about 426,000 shares at prices ranging from $15.84 to $16.60. According to the filings, Dorsey made two separate purchases. On Monday, he bought about $1 million in stock, while on Tuesday, he bought $6 million worth of stock.
#LoveTwitter https://t.co/fELbw0ska7
— jack (@jack) February 14, 2017
In another transaction, Dorsey sold more than $11 million worth of Square shares as part of a pre-scheduled trading plan. Dorsey is also serving Square as its CEO. Key names within the companies, like Dorsey, often buy or sell their shares on a scheduled basis. But no trading plan was mentioned with Dorsey’s recent purchase, notes CNBC.
Over the past week, Twitter shares went down by more than 9.5% soon after the company reported its fourth quarter earnings, which fell short of Wall Street expectations. However, Dorsey reiterated his support for the company during the earnings call.
“Late last year we really flattened the organization, so that we could elevate engineering product and design, so they report directly to me, so I could be a lot closer to the products. Now that we spent a year really going through and making sure that we reset the foundation on what we’re executing, what our priorities are and how we execute from an engineering perspective, we have a lot more confidence that we can move a lot faster on bigger things,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey confident on himself and Twitter
It is not difficult to guess the motive behind Dorsey’s moves. Twitter’s fourth quarter earnings left investors very disappointed, sending the stock down nearly 10% on earnings day. Hence, Dorsey’s latest move shows investors that he has a lot of confidence that Twitter can turn around its business. By buying Twitter stock, Dorsey has made a “symbolic gesture,” says Recode.
This is the first time Dorsey has bought shares since August 2015. At that time, he bought a small amount soon after becoming Twitter’s interim CEO. The new shares represent about 3% of Dorsey’s overall Twitter holdings.
On Tuesday, Twitter shares closed up 4.49% at $16.52. Year to date, the stock is up more than 1%, while in the last year, it is up more than 4%.
