The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price is edging higher during Tuesday afternoon. This comes after the energy giant announced its CEO has offloaded a number of Santos shares.
At the time of writing, Santos shares are swapping hands for $7.30, up 0.55%.
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Santos CEO sells down Santos shares
Investors appear to be unfazed by the company's latest news, sending the Santos share price into positive territory.
According to a company announcement, Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher sold a parcel of his shares through an on-market trade.
In total, 400,000 Santos shares were offloaded on 23 February for an average price of $7.14 per share. This equates to a lump sum of roughly $2.86 million in Gallagher's pockets.
The company listed the reason for the sale was to pay off "historic and pending personal tax obligations".
It's worth noting that this is not uncommon as directors and CEOs alike sell for various reasons over time.
A catalyst for the Santos shares remaining afloat today despite the selldown can be attributed to some recent broker notes.
The team at UBS cut its price target by 8.2% to $8.90 for Santos shares. Based on the current share price, this implies a potential upside of 21%.
Furthermore, Morgans and Macquarie also reduced their rating by 1.6% to $9.00, and 1.1% to $9.30, respectively.
It seems that all three brokers believe that the Santos shares are currently undervalued.
About the Santos share price
The Santos share price has gone almost nowhere over the last 12 months, registering a slight loss of 1%.
Although, when looking year to date, the company's shares have accelerated by around 15%.
In particular, the past month has been extremely positive for investors, with Santos shares up 7%. This comes off the back of rising energy prices which have had a profound impact on the company's share price.
Based on today's price, Santos commands a market capitalisation of approximately $24.6 billion, with 3.39 billion shares on hand.
