Crown Castle CEO steps down, ARK scoops up Palantir: Insider trades & hedge funds

Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest insider trades and institutional investor headlines you may have missed this week: Crown Castle CEO steps down amid pressure from Elliott Investment Management, Cathie Wood's ARK Investment uses pullback in Palantir to buy more shares, and top brass buys/sells at Palantir, Akero Therapeutics, and Citi Trends.

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Crown Castle CEO steps down amid activist investor pressure

Crown Castle International (NYSE:CCI) today announced a major leadership change, with CEO Jay Brown stepping down under pressure from Elliott Investment Management. Brown, who has been at the helm of the company since 2016, will retire from his roles as President, CEO, and Director on January 16, 2024.

This change follows intense scrutiny from activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which recently confirmed acquiring a stake exceeding $2 billion in Crown Castle.

Last week, Elliott sent a letter to the company’s Board, calling for the addition of a new executive and board leadership, an overview of the fiber business, an optimized inventive plan, and improved corporate governance.

Shares are up more than 1% pre-market today.

Cathie Wood's ARK Investment uses pullback in Palantir to buy more shares

Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management funds made their first purchase of shares in the data-analysis company Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) for the first time in about two and a half months.

The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) added approximately 1.2 million shares to its holdings, while the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) acquired 232,050 and 145,910 shares respectively.

This investment decision was made amidst a 19.7% drop in Palantir's stock price from its peak on Nov 20, although the stock has seen a significant overall increase of 167% since the beginning of the year.

As a result, Palantir's shares experienced a slight rise yesterday. The increase occurred despite a recent dip on Wednesday following the news that co-founder Stephen Cohen sold shares worth nearly $13 million.

Insider trades

Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) co-founder and President, Stephen Cohen, sold a total of 656,100 shares, or worth nearly $13 million, at $19.1131-$20.0181 per share.

As a consequence, shares dropped more than 6% on Wednesday.

Akero Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKRO) Director, Graham Walmsley, purchased 100,000 common shares, or worth nearly $1.7M, at $16.8967-$16.9946 per share. Walmsley owns a total of 700,000 shares indirectly and another 2,168 directly following the latest purchase.

Citi Trends (NASDAQ:CTRN) 10% owner Fund 1 Investments purchase 78,724 common shares, or worth about $1.9M, at $23.5868-$23.7938 per share. The fund owns 1,327,342 shares indirectly following the latest purchase.

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