frank slootman ceo and chairman at snowflake nysesnow made a large buy and sell of company shares on november 1 according to a new sec filing what happened a form 4 filing from the us securities and exchange commission states that frank slootman exercised options to purchase 10322 snowflake shares at a price of 888 per share for a total of 91659 on november 1 they then sold their shares on succeeding transactions in the open market they sold at prices ranging from 000 to 35539 to raise a total of 3649002 from the stock sale following the transaction slootman still owns 1289983 shares of snowflake worth 456008990 snowflake shares are trading down 171 at 3535 at the time of this writing on wednesday morning insider transactions shouldnt be used primarily to make an investing decision however they can be an important factor for an investor to consider in legal terms an insider refers to any shareholder who owns at least 10 of a company this can include executives in the csuite and large hedge funds these insiders are required to let the public know of their transactions via a form 4 filing which must be filed within two business days of the transaction when a company insider makes a new purchase that is an indication that they expect the stock to rise insider sells on the other hand can be made for a variety of reasons and may not necessarily mean that the seller thinks the stock will go down investors prefer focusing on transactions that take place in the open market indicated in table i of the form 4 filing a p in box 3 indicates a purchase while s indicates a sale transaction code c indicates the conversion of an option and transaction code a indicates the insider may have been forced to sell shares in order to receive compensation that had been promised upon being hired by the company check out the full list of snowflakes insider trades