Potential Quiet Period Trades – Insider Weekends

Before we get to a brief discussion related to cloud security company Netskope, which saw insider buying by ICONIQ, a San Francisco-based investment firm with a large venture portfolio, I wanted to touch upon insider transactions during what should be a trading blackout period for most companies.

Insiders of companies are not allowed to trade on material non-public information (MNPI). To take the guesswork out of whether they traded on MNPI or not, most companies impose a blackout period or quiet period that restricts trading for a stretch of time that often begins a few weeks before the end of a quarter and lasts until a few days after quarterly or annual results are reported.

These quiet periods are not defined by law but are put in place by companies and communicated internally. This is why we see heavy insider activity in the middle of each quarter (February, May, August and November) and then it tapers off significantly as we approach the end of the quarter.

Looking at the list of top five insider purchases last week, I was surprised to see filings by three companies where the insiders bought shares after the end of the quarter. The other two companies that made up the top five either had a fiscal year that was different from the calendar year (Netskope’s fiscal year ends on January 31st, which implies there are still three weeks to go before their second quarter ends on July 31, 2026) or the insider was buying under an established 10b5-1 plan.

Small companies might not have internal controls that are as strong as those at much larger companies with significant legal resources and this could also be true for international companies that have only been required to file Form 4s with the SEC starting this March. Two out of the three companies from last week whose insiders purchased stock after the end of the quarter were Argentinian companies. The third one, Energy Fuels (UUUU), is domiciled in Canada and claims to be the largest U.S. uranium provider with its corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado. In addition to uranium, the company has also been expanding its production to rare earth minerals and advanced magnet manufacturing through acquisitions.

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