Uber COO Puts $5M Behind His Own Stock

UBER President and COO Andrew Gordon MacDonald filed two open-market purchases on September 8, totalling roughly $5.3M in Uber shares. He bought 54,325 shares on September 4 at an average price near $75.60, spending $4.1M, then picked up a further 15,675 shares the same day for $1.2M. Combined, MacDonald now holds more than 426,000 shares. Open-market purchases by operating executives carry the strongest signal of any insider transaction type, because the buyer is using their own cash rather than exercising grants. There is no 10b5-1 plan declaration attached to either filing.

Elsewhere, the chairman of Turkish industrial valve maker Bürçelik Vana, Ümit Gümüş, stepped in to buy $12.9M worth of stock on September 7, the same day an asset manager sold a similar-sized block. The opposing flows suggest the chairman was absorbing supply rather than responding to new information.

In Korea, COWAY main shareholder Netmarble Corporation bought shares across four consecutive sessions through September 8, spending roughly $7.7M in total. Steady, repeated purchases from a named corporate shareholder are a stronger signal than a single block trade.

On the sell side, JPMorgan Chase filed disposals across several Hong Kong-listed names on September 8, including $84.9M from Kingdee International and $70.8M from Sunny Optical. These are custodial or index-linked flows rather than director conviction trades, and carry little directional signal.