Asana Shares Tumble Despite Stock Buying Spree by CEO

Text size

Asana

shares are melting down on Wednesday, giving up most of their gains following a recent rally spurred by mammoth purchases of the workflow software management company’s stock by founder and CEO Dustin Moskovitz.

As Barron’s has been chronicling, Moskovitz—also a co-founder of

Facebook

—since last summer has poured an astonishing amount of money into his own company’s stock. In a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Moskovitz disclosed the purchase of another 1.25 million shares for $88 million from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18.

That brings his total purchases since early June to 18.3 million shares acquired for $1.19 billion. Overall, he now owns either directly or through a trust 23.2 million of the company’s Class A shares, close to 24% of the total outstanding. He also owns 76% of the company’s supervoting Class B shares. On a combined basis, he now owns just under 49% of Asana’s total shares.

Asana previously declined to address the purchases, citing a pre-earnings quiet period. The company, which will report financial results on March 9, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

According to SEC filings, all of the purchases since mid-2021 were made under a 10b5-1 trading plan, an automated program intended to keep executives from trading on insider information.

Asana shares were direct-listed on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020, opening for trading at $21. The stock peaked at $145 in November 2021, fell below $44 by late January amid the sharp selloff in tech shares, then reversed course, closing at $74.13 a week ago. Wednesday the company turned south again, falling 23% to $46.86.

The slide in Asana’s shares appears tied to the selloff in shares of Monday.com (MNDY), a competitor in the work management tools sector which on Wednesday morning reported first-quarter financial results. Monday.com also issued apparently disappointing guidance, which called for a step-up in costs to improve the company’s position in a competitive segment. Monday shares are down 27%, to $130.12. Other players in the sector are trading lower as well, with

Atlassian

(TEAM) down 4.8%, to $281.62, and

Smartsheet

(SMRT) off 7.3%, to $50.03.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]