One part of the bear case for ShotSpotter (SSTI) is that insiders are eager to dump their positions, and their selling will crush the stock. It turned out that company executives were eager and willing to BUY company shares. When it came time for a significant holder to sell, SSTI sailed through the event just fine.
Motorola disclosed the sale of 949,779 shares at $15.00/share on Wednesday, January 10. The sale caused a volume surge that at first glance looked like a washout of the last motivated sellers. An alert by the Canton ShotSpotter system resulted in the arrest of three men and the recovery of more than $5,000 of counterfeit money and multiple firearms. Total trading volume hit 1.4M shares, far surpassing any other trading day except for SSTI's first day of trading. Buyers followed through by sending SSTI as high as 7% the next day.
Source: FreeStockCharts.com
ShotSpotter is on the comeback trail with a strong breakout above its 50-day moving average (DMA). The strong buying in response to the large sale is the good news from this trading action. From a technical standpoint, SSTI looks like it convincingly confirmed a breakout above its 50-day moving average (DMA). The next test will be the all-time high that followed the last earnings report and preceded the bear raid.
There is also recent good news from the implementation side. I found some encouraging stories from the good folks posting on SSTI on StockTwits that add yet more confirmation of the value of ShotSpotter's system for detecting gunfire.
Canton, OH success
On the same day Motorola sold shares, News 5 Cleveland reported on a successful ShotSpotter implementation in Canton, OH. ShotSpotter was credited for an alert to police that generated “the arrest of three men and the recovery of more than $5,000 of counterfeit money and multiple firearms.” ShotSpotter was police's FIRST alert to the incident and the responders were given information on the closest address on their way to the scene. A policeman interviewed for the story noted the value of having ShotSpotter's ears on the scene when police cannot be present.
