Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) disclosed a series of stock trading transactions Thursday, and at least one of them has raised eyebrows on potential insider trading.
What Happened: As part of mandatory disclosure, Whitehouse said in a filing with Congress that he sold shares of Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO), a pollution treatment company, in three tranches on Nov. 29, data provided by Quiver Quantitative, an analytics firm that tracks stock trading by Congressmen showed.
The “Stock Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act” requires U.S. Senators to publicly file and disclose any financial transaction within 45 days of its occurrence.
The senator sold $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares each in three lots. The sale would have fetched him $3.34 million, based on the closing price on the day of the transaction.
Incidentally, since the sale, the stock is up about 1.6%, as it rallied along with the broader market.
The trades were viewed in a colored light, primarily because Whitehouse is a member of the Senate Committee on Environment.
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Why It’s Important: Waltham, Massachusetts-based Veralto is a large-cap name and the company was spun off from Danaher Corp. (NYSE:DHR) in late September.
Raising suspicion about Whitehouse’s Veralto sale, Quiver Quantitative said there is precedence. The senator reportedly sold up to $600,000 of stocks in 2008 just before the financial crisis.
“He did so shortly after meeting with the Fed Chairman and the Treasury Secretary,” it said, adding, “He did not face any insider trading charges for those trades.”
Veralto stock ended Friday’s session up 1.07% at $75.43, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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