The Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX: PME) share price is in focus today after its founders decided to make a major share sale.
Pro Medicus describes itself as a leading healthcare informatics company which provides a full range of medical imaging software and services to hospitals, imaging centres and healthcare groups worldwide.
Founder selldown
The company announced that its board of directors has been advised by co-founders Dr Sam Hupert and Anthony Hall have each sold 1 million Pro Medicus shares during the current trading window.
The sale was done in response to approaches from a number of “high-quality institutional investors” and was done at the closing Pro Medicus share price of $256.73 on 3 December 2024.
That means they each sold shares for a total value of approximately $256.7 million. Between them, they sold a total of $513.5 million.
Should investors worry about this sale?
It was noted by the business that the sale of 1 million shares each represents less than 4% of their respective shareholdings.
Pro Medicus also said that Dr Hupert and Hall remain the two largest shareholders in the company with both founders retaining more than 24 million Pro Medicus shares each.
Their combined shareholding after this sale represents 46% of the company’s shares on issue. They are still extremely invested in the business and financially motivated to make it a success.
In addition to that, Dr Hupert and Hall said that they do not intend to sell any further Pro Medicus shares in the foreseeable future.
The Pro Medicus chair Peter Kempen said:
This sale of shares by the founders is part of a progressive sell down, which provides prospective shareholders with the opportunity to invest in the company and ultimately will increase the free float.
Final thoughts on the Pro Medicus share price
I can understand why the two founders want to reduce their position in the business. They both own more than $6 billion of Pro Medicus shares, so it’d be useful for them to diversify their wealth. The valuation is very high, so it’s a good time to offload a portion.
The sale also adds more shares onto the market that can be traded, which is useful for investors.
It’s an incredible business with extraordinary profit margins and ongoing contract wins, but with a high valuation, it could make sense to buy other ASX growth shares instead.