The IPH Ltd (ASX: IPH) share price is edging higher during Friday afternoon.
This comes despite the announcement by the intellectual property services company that its CEO has offloaded some of his shares.
At the time of writing, IPH shares are swapping hands at $9.60 apiece, up 2.13%.
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IPH CEO sells shares to 'satisfy personal tax obligations'
Investors appear to be unfazed by the company's latest news, sending the IPH share price into positive territory.
According to the release, IPH managing director and CEO, Andrew Blattman sold a parcel of his shares through an on-market trade.
In total, 400,000 IPH shares were disposed on 24 August.
While the average price per share sold isn't listed, we do know that $3.64 million went into Blattman's pockets. This would suggest that each share that was sold was around $9.10 per share.
The company listed the reason for the sale was "to satisfy personal tax obligations arising from the issue of shares under the company's long term incentive plan."
It's worth noting that this is not uncommon, as directors and CEO's alike sell for various reasons over time.
A catalyst for the IPH shares remaining afloat today despite the sell down can be attributed to some recent broker notes.
According to ANZ Share Investing, the team at Macquarie raised its price target by 45% to $11.95 for IPH shares. Based on the current share price, this implies an upside of roughly 25%.
Furthermore, Canaccord Genuity also bumped up its rating by 15% to $11.65 per share.
It seems that both brokers believe that the IPH shares are undervalued from where they trade today.
IPH share price summary
IPH shares have travelled in circles over the last 12 months, registering a slight gain of 3.7%.
Although, when looking at year to date though, its shares are up 9%.
In particular, the past month has been extremely positive for shareholders with its shares 16% higher following the company's full-year results.
Based on today's price, IPH commands a market capitalisation of approximately $2.08 billion, with 218.82 million shares on hand.
