The holidays may come early for employees of Zillow. The Seattle company, which went public at $20 per share on July 19th, saw its shares close today at $32.52.
And while that share price is not significant by itself, the strong performance over the past three months means that employees and early investors in the company will be able to cash out a little early.
Typically, when a company goes public, insiders are forbidden from trading the stock for 180 days following the IPO. That 180-day lock-up period was put in place at Zillow as well. But, as GeekWire previously reported, the Zillow lock-up came with an unusual caveat.
Basically, as was spelled out in the company’s IPO filings, insiders would get the right to sell up to 25 percent of their holdings early if the stock price traded at $26.60 or greater for a set time frame after the first 90 days of being a public company.
As of today, Zillow achieved that milestone. (The stock has traded above $26.60 since October 18th). But it’s not quite that easy.
Given that Zillow reported earnings last week, insiders can’t sell immediately.
Nonetheless, the milestone means that Zillow insiders — who under the 180-day lock-up agreement would have been prevented from selling until early next year — will be able to cash out some of their holdings later this month.
Shares of Zillow are up 28 percent in the past month, following a strong earnings report last week.
What’s going to be interesting to watch is whether Zillow insiders decide to hold or sell when given the opportunity.
