Insiders are making interesting moves across key stocks in the semiconductor, space, and consumer discretionary industries. This includes big-time sales at a retail favorite, AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS), raising a red flag to investors, as well as two other big names.
Marvell Insiders Up Sales as Shares Soar
Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) is an artificial intelligence (AI) stock that has gone on a big run as of late. In 2026, Marvell shares are already up more than 90%. This comes due to several key developments.
First off, Marvell has largely put to bed rumors that its custom chip business with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) was at risk. Furthermore, the company received a $2 billion investment from NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), with its technology now accessible via NVLink Fusion.
With this, NVIDIA is essentially allowing customers to easily pair Marvell components with NVIDIA components. Additionally, rumors have surfaced that Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is considering a custom chip partnership with Marvell.
However, amid the stock’s surge, insider selling is on the rise in a big way. From Q1 to Q2, insider sales have more than doubled from $7.85 million to $19 million. Still, it is important to note that over 75% of these Q2 sales came under pre-determined 10b5-1 plans. Thus, they do not provide much of a near-term bearish signal.
Trades that did not come under a 105b-1 plan were all made by Executive Vice President Mark Casper. With non-105b-1 sales contained to just one individual, the recent insider trades at Marvell are not overly concerning.
Top AST SpaceMobile Shareholder Drops Stake Significantly
AST SpaceMobile is one of the more discussed stocks among retail investors and has seen big-time volatility. Near the end of January 2026, ASTS was up nearly 70% for the year.
The U.S. government awarded AST SpaceMobile a key contract, a significant contributor to the stock's rise. The firm can now take part in the Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) project, part of the broader Golden Dome initiative. However, after a strong start, ASTS shares are now in the red for 2026.
Interestingly, Rakuten (OTCMKTS: RKUNY), led by CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, has sold $271 million worth of ASTS shares in Q2. This is a substantial move, being among the largest insider sales for AST SpaceMobile in recent memory. Still, it is worth noting that this was a moderate trim, rather than an exit from the position. Rakuten decreased its ASTS shares held by approximately 10% and still holds nearly 28 million shares.
However, with these sales, Rakuten no longer owns more than 10% of ASTS shares and is no longer classified as an insider. As a result, Rakuten now reports sales under Schedule 13D filings. A recent 13D shows that its position has now fallen to just over 21 million shares. This points to a much more aggressive drop in its holdings of around 32%. Overall, these are very large sales from one of AST SpaceMobile’s top shareholders; a clear negative indicator for the stock.
Insider Sales Rise as e.l.f. Beauty Falls
Last up is e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE: ELF), which has also been up and down in 2026. Shares had risen as much as 24% in late February, but are now down more than 15% on the year. The stock’s slide largely coincided with the beginning of the conflict in Iran. Multiple factors may be contributing to this.
First off, rising oil prices tend to hurt discretionary spending, as consumers have to pay more for key products like gasoline. Additionally, many companies derive their cosmetics from oil. Thus, higher oil prices could negatively affect e.l.f.’s margins.
After tracking no insider sales at e.l.f. in Q1, MarketBeat has tracked $13 million worth of sales in Q2. However, all of these sales came with mitigating factors and thus do not provide bearish signals. This includes a sale from CEO Tarang Amin, which came under a 10b5-1 plan. All other sales came on the same date: April 27. This appears to have happened due to the vesting of performance-based restricted stock units (PSUs). Upon vesting, insiders had to sell a portion of these shares to satisfy income tax withholdings. In turn, the sales are procedural in nature, and investors should not see them in a negative light.
Insider Sales: Not an End-All-Be-All
Overall, it is important to recognize that insider sales are often noisy signals, and certainly do not always foreshadow a continued slide. Still, the sales at AST SpaceMobile are quite significant and worth taking notice of. Rakuten still holds around 7.2% of ASTS shares and has been selling aggressively. Should it continue on this path, it is possible that ASTS could face more downward pressure.
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The article "Insider Sales: Top AST SpaceMobile Insider Cuts Postion Over 30%" first appeared on MarketBeat.
