Good timing, lucky buy, or more to the story? Those are the choices the public will likely be attributing to a large purchase of shares of a commerce company by a U.S. Senator months before an acquisition was announced.
What Happened: Multichannel commerce platform company ChannelAdvisor Corp (NYSE:ECOM) is set to be acquired by privately held software-as-a-service company CommerceHub.
The deal, which values ChannelAdvisor shares at $23.10 each was announced Tuesday and represents a premium of 57% to the closing share price of ChannelAdvisor on Friday, Sept. 2.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) bought shares of ChannelAdvisor several times over the last year, with a recent purchase on July 14 disclosed on Aug. 15, 2022.
Tuberville purchased shares of ChanelAdvisor on July 14 that totaled $100,000 to $250,000 in value according to CongressTrading.
Shares of ChannelAdvisor traded between $14.04 and $14.26 on July 14, the date of Tuberville’s purchase. Based on the high price of $14.26 and the total amount listed in the filing, the Senator bought 7,012.62 shares to 17,531.56 shares.
If Tuberville bought $100,000 worth of shares, he would be up $59,677.36 on his purchase. If Tuberville bought $250,000 worth of shares, he would be up $149,193.62 on his purchase.
Tuberville has been a senator serving the people of Alabama since 2021. Prior to a political career, Tuberville was a college football coach for the University of Cincinnati, Texas Tech University, Auburn University and the University of Mississippi.
Related Link: 10 Best Stock Traders In Congress In 2021
Why It’s Important: Tuberville may have had no knowledge of the company exploring an acquisition or being targeted by CommerceHub.
Although, the senator has been flagged for trades previously.
“You voted for Senator Tuberville to represent you, instead he’s trading cattle, wheat, and corn contracts. Btw he sits on Senate Agriculture Committee,” Congresstrading tweeted in September 2021.
Tuberville also made headlines when he placed bets against Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK), a move that was criticized on Twitter as the ETF holds positions in many high growth U.S. companies.
UnusualWhales has also flagged that Tuberville has a history of not disclosing trades promptly. Tuberville also invested heavily in infrastructure stocks in 2021, which could have been related to government initiatives.
There have been increased calls to ban members of Congress and their spouses from buying and selling stocks due to the potential to trade based on non-public information.
A former congressman was charged by the SEC earlier this year over using non-public information related to acquisitions of public companies.
ECOM Price Action: ChannelAdvisor shares are up 55% to $22.77 on Tuesday compared to a 52-week trading range of $11.89 to $24.92.
