Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek has sold another $28 million in SPOT stock, bringing his total share sales this year to $248.3 million – so far.
As Spotify stock hit record highs this year, Ek was selling his holdings in the Sweden-headquartered streaming service in tranches of 75,000 shares. Per an SEC filing this week, Ek’s latest sale – dated December 11 – was smaller than those earlier sales, at 60,000 shares, and it netted him $28.294 million.
So far this year, the Spotify CEO has sold 1,010,000 shares of the company he co-founded.
However, he remains a major shareholder. According to a 20-F filing with the SEC, Ek held 30.86 million shares, or 15.65% of the total, as of the start of 2024. Even after this current wave of selling, Ek still holds some 29.85 million shares of Spotify.
Ek’s latest share sale comes in the wake of SPOT hitting an all-time high closing price of $502.38 per share on December 4. That meant the company hit a market cap of nearly $100.9 billion.
Spotify’s stock price has since pulled back somewhat, and closed on Wednesday (December 11) at $476.91 per share, with a market cap of around $95.8 billion.
Ek’s latest SEC filing implies he sold the most recent tranche of stock at $471.58 per share.
Despite the slump in recent days – likely the result of some profit-taking, and not just by Ek – Spotify’s stock price run-up has been nothing short of epic. As recently as November 2022, the company’s stock was trading at $77 per share, meaning it has jumped 520% in about two years.
A large part of that run-up took place this year, as Spotify filed one solid earnings report after another. The company is expected to report its first full year of profit in 2024.
And Ek hasn’t been the only major figure to take advantage of Spotify’s high-flying price. In fact, co-founder and board member Martin Lorentzon has been the largest seller this year, offloading nearly 1.49 million shares for $556.77 million.
Here’s our updated breakdown of stock sales in 2024 by key individuals at Spotify:
- Martin Lorentzon, co-founder and board member, sold 1,488,364 shares for $556.77 million.
- Daniel Ek, co-founder and CEO, sold 950,000 shares for $348.293 million.
- Gustav Soderstrom, Spotify’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, sold 247,465 shares for a total of $91.1 million.
- Alex Norstrom, Chief Business Officer, sold 188,129 shares for $62.98 million.
- Barry McCarthy, a former CFO of Spotify and a current director on the board, sold 94,250 shares for $39.96 million.
- Katarina Berg, Spotify’s Chief Human Resources Officer, sold 102,491 shares for $37.93 million.
- Paul Vogel, the now-former CFO, sold 77,931 shares for $19.36 million.
- Eve Konstan Mothner, Spotify’s General Counsel, sold 16,234 shares for $7.34 million.
- Dustee Jenkins, Chief Public Affairs Officer, sold 13,709 shares for $6.22 million.
- Ben Kung, the company’s VP, Financial Planning and Analysis, who served as Interim CFO this year, sold 11,887 shares for $4.81 million.
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