Elastic co-founder sold $135 million of stock with no trading plan the day Pictet crossed 5%
Steven Schuurman's CMXI B.V. sold 1.5 million Elastic shares at $90.13 with the trading-plan box unticked on the filing. A day later, Pictet's Schedule 13D landed: 5.18% of the company, and an engagement on valuation.
Vincent Jiang · 2 min read
Steven Schuurman co-founded Elastic in 2012 1; on Monday October 5 his holding vehicle CMXI B.V. sold 1,500,000 shares at $90.13 each, roughly $135 million, leaving 4,504,600 shares 2. The sale notice had gone in on October 2, naming Goldman Sachs as broker and valuing the block at $140.9 million 3. The same trading day, Pictet Asset Management bought 236,590 Elastic shares at prices from $92.25 to $94.23, and the 13D those buys triggered carries an event date of October 5 4.
Pictet wants the valuation gap closed
Pictet's Schedule 13D, accepted October 6, reports 5,445,175 shares, 5.18% of Elastic, held for institutional clients at a purchase cost of about $412.5 million, roughly $75.76 a share by the filing's arithmetic 45. The firm says it is "actively engaging with the Issuer" on strategy, governance, financial strength and "the fair valuation of underlying securities", with no plans for a change of control 45. Elastic's July quarter brought $478 million of revenue, up 15% year on year, and a $23.6 million operating loss 6.
Elastic's revenue keeps climbing, but growth has eased from 17.6% to 15.1%
Data
| Revenue | |
|---|---|
| Q3 '24 | $365.36M |
| Q4 '24 | $382.08M |
| Q1 '25 | $388.43M |
| Q2 '25 | $415.29M |
| Q3 '25 | $423.48M |
| Q4 '25 | $449.88M |
| Q1 '26 | $450.68M |
| Q2 '26 | $478.11M |
No plan on either sale
The write-ups called the selling routine, even "pre-arranged trading plans" 7. The filings say otherwise: the Rule 10b5-1 box is unticked on Schuurman's Form 4 and on Chief Revenue Officer Mark Dodds', who sold 10,000 shares at $92.58 on October 2 289. Why Schuurman sold, the paperwork does not say. His stake fell from about 5.7% of Elastic's 104,991,280 shares outstanding to about 4.3% 23. The block itself traces to 2015, when CMXI took 7.29 million shares for €7,290 3.
Schuurman sold at $90.13 a share, $20.56 under the street's average target
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Pictet average cost, derived (estimate) | $75.76 |
| Schuurman sale, 5 Oct | $90.13 |
| ESTC close, 6 Oct | $94.6 |
| Street average target (estimate) | $110.69 |
A year of exits below the target
Insider-transaction trackers count 40 insider sales at Elastic against one buy over the past year; Dodds alone has sold 52,833 shares and bought none 7. The stock closed October 6 at $94.60, up 25.4% since January, against an average analyst target of $110.69 10.
The seller keeps skin in the game
Selling is not always signaling. CMXI still holds 4,504,600 shares, worth roughly $426 million at the October 6 close 210, and Pictet itself paid as much as $105.10 a share in late August, well above the founder's exit price 4. Still, operating income has been negative in seven of Elastic's last eight quarters 6.
Watch for the next Form 144
Pictet "reserves the right to change its intentions" as the engagement proceeds 4. The tell is simpler: if CMXI files another sale notice, the founder's answer to Pictet's valuation campaign is already priced.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
