Hern Sold This Tech Stock and Missed Out on its Rally
Congressman Kevin Hern was both buying and selling stocks in December, as per his disclosures from earlier this week. While the Congressman was mostly investing in oil and gas stocks, he was also reducing his exposure to some others, including Adobe (ADBE:US) and Masimo (MASI:US).
The Congressman sold $250,000 - $500,000 worth of ADBE shares on December 19, when the stock closed at $328.76. Shares now trade as much as 13% higher relative to the closing price of Dec. 19, buoyed by improving sentiment on risk assets, particularly stocks.
Adobe stock has been mostly trading range bound after the company announced in September it would acquiring Figma Inc for approximately $20 billion in cash and stock. It is expected that this expensive transaction will weigh on the company’s near-term profitability and margins.
More interestingly, Rep. Hern was selling shares of Masimo, which staged a strong rally last week. The higher move was sparked as a result of a U.S. administrative court judge ruling that Apple violated the law by using pulse oximetry capabilities in its Apple Watches. The patents are owned by Masimo, which accused Apple in 2021 of infringing its intellectual property.
As a result, MASI stock now trades about 17% higher year-to-date (YTD) and nearly 23.55% higher relative to the closing price on December 19, when the stock closed at $138.72.
