As SoFi Technologies Inc. shares slid this week, two executives bought up stock.
Chief Executive Anthony Noto scooped up 44,000 shares of SoFi
SOFI,
Thursday at an average price of $6.78, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He paid $298,000 in the transaction.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Lapointe joined him on the buying spree, purchasing 14,950 SoFi shares at an average price of $6.69. He spent $100,000 on that batch of stock.
Read: Lumen CEO buys nearly $1 million in stock after historic selloff
SoFi shares notched their fifth session in a row of losses Thursday, the day the executives made their purchases, and they shed 16% over that five-day span. The financial-technology stock was moving fractionally lower in Friday’s session as well.
Some of the recent pressure seems to stem from disclosures in SoFi’s 10-Q, filed Wednesday. “Bears argue that servicing fees are abnormally large ($767K over $15 million), meaning the execution price of 105.1% is overstated,” Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev wrote of the company’s personal-loan sales.
But in his view, “bears are misguided.”
“Servicing fees could be as high at 3.5-4.0% over 36 months (weighted average life), but buyers/sellers negotiate deals individually and total consideration paid is the primary factor behind fair-value determination,” he said.
Noto has been opportunistic with his stock purchases, using other recent selloffs as buying opportunities. He notably spent upwards of $1 million to buy up stock as SoFi shares fell in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March. Last December, he scooped up more than $7 million worth of stock across several transactions that one analyst said were well timed.
Noto has direct ownership of 7.24 million SoFi shares following his latest purchasing, according to the Form 4 filed Thursday. Lapointe owns about 827,000 shares.
SoFi didn’t immediately respond to a MarketWatch request for comment on the recent purchases.
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