The lock-up that stopped insiders at Palantir Technologies from selling their shares recently expired. And boy, are they excited!

Palantir stock sank as much as 13% on Tuesday after regulatory filings showed the company’s co-founder Stephen Cohen and two other top executives offloaded 2.7 million shares.

And they’re not the only ones:

Just a month after Palantir went public last year, CEO Alex Karp and co-found Peter Thiel sold a combined 41.45 million shares, for more than $400 million.

These sales go way beyond what it would take to have financial security or fund most any lifestyle. To me, it suggests that they think the company has gone about as far as it’s going to and it’s time to cash out.

In a company destined for greatness, you would expect to see the insiders holding onto their shares. They wouldn’t want to miss out on the amazing times ahead!

But that’s not the case here. I agree with them. Palantir is overvalued with a questionable business model and should be making money by now, 18 years since its founding. But it’s never made a dime.

The picture isn’t all bleak: a certain number of insiders are buying. But seeing these huge sales by the founders and top executives would definitely give me pause.

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Photo: “PandoMonthly – April 2012 – Sarah Lacy Interviews Peter Thiel” by thekenyeung is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0