ARQ shares lose 38% on trading update & 1 month after the CEO "reluctantly" sold shares

ARQ Group Ltd's (ASX: ARQ) CEO got lucky with his timing.

a woman

The ARQ Group Ltd (ASX: ARQ) share price is down 38% to 80 cents in trade today after the group formerly known as Melbourne IT handed investors a big downgrade to its profit guidance. 

In fact ARQ Group might want to undertake another rebranding soon, looking at today's share price chart.

Source: Google Finance, June 25, 2019

In downgrading its guidance ARQ's CEO, Martin Mercer, warned that its enterprise services decision was underperforming due to "execution issues" and "unexpected delays in turning on revenue from new contracts".

Still it's not all bad news for the CEO as he was fortunate enough to sell 190,941 shares (apparently for tax reasons) at an average price of $1.723 just back on May 21-23, 2019.

Moreover, at the time Mr Mercer stated he was "reluctantly" selling the shares and remained positive on ARQ's growth outlook.

Interestingly, the Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) founders also told the market they were "reluctantly" selling 6 million shares for $7 per share not long before its own share price tumbled on the back a weaker-than-expected trading update. 

As I wrote yesterday in an article on Dicker Data Ltd (ASX: DDR) C-suite members can buy or sell for many reasons and their actions can often be lead indicators for investors as to how a company is performing. 

Motley Fool contributor Tom Richardson owns shares of Dicker Data Limited. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Dicker Data Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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