The Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO) share price is currently down 3.5% after news that the CEO sold all of their ordinary shares.
Xero is one of the largest accounting software businesses in the world, with a large and important market share in New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
CEO sells all her shares
Before 7 July 2026, the CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy held 29,608 ordinary Xero shares.
Today, the market learned that Cassidy had sold all of her 29,608 Xero shares on the market at share price of $74 for total proceeds to $2.19 million.
The reported reason for the sale was to manage “personal tax obligations”.
There are a number of reasons a member of the leadership team may decide to sell their shares, such as to buy a house, paying for tax reasons and so on. I think the market would much prefer to see leadership figures buy shares rather than sell shares.
Buying shares shows the leader thinks the company is at a good valuation and has a good future. It’s a vote in confidence of the company.
Selling shares may be a worrying sign. Is there a reason that the CEO is choosing this time and that price to sell? Is bad news incoming?
Is Cassidy’s pay about to change?
According to reporting by the Australian Financial Review, there is supposedly a plan to “reset her pay package to be less dependent on the struggling stock price”.
If I were a shareholder, I’d want the leader of the business to be well remunerated. However, I’d also suggest that shareholders probably appreciate alignment between management and shareholders when it comes to the rewards of a rising share price and disappointment if it’s not going up.
Cassidy does still have 1.04 million options and 171, 381 restricted share units (RSUs), so she does still have some alignment, but ordinary shares are the best measure, in my opinion.
Final thoughts on the Xero share price
I think Xero is a great business, but it is suffering at the moment, with concerns about AI impacts seemingly hurting investor confidence.
If the company can get the US (and UK) growth right, it could regain investor confidence, particularly with help from its acquired US business called Melio.
But, even at this lower price, there are other ASX growth shares that could deliver better returns.
