XPeng‘s founder and CEO He Xiaopeng has bought 3.1 million shares in the automaker on Thursday, according to a new regulatory filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The purchase was made through his company Galaxy Dynasty Limited, at an average price of HK$80.49 per share.
Exactly a year ago, He had personally acquired 1 million Class A ordinary shares on XPeng, at an average price of HK$27.13 per share, representing a total HK$27.13 million ($3.5 million at the time).
Additionally, through Galaxy Dynasty, the CEO had purchased 1,419,922 American Depositary Shares (ADS) at an average price of $7.02 per ADS, totaling around $10 million.
Galaxy Dynasty now holds 3.1 million Class A ordinary shares and 1,419,922 American Depositary Shares (ADS).
The chief executive’s stake in the company now represents 18.9%.
It includes over 348 million class B shares acquired through Respect Holding and Simplicty Holding. The latter also owns 2,200,000 American Depositary Shares.
Hong Kong-listed XPeng shares closed 0.6% higher at HK$80.90 on Thursday’s market session. The stock has gained 79.8% in the past eight months.
XPeng is also listed on Nasdaq, where its shares are soaring nearly 13% at $22.99, as of the time of writing.
The stock price represents a new five-month high, after a $27.16 peak in early March. It has surged by nearly 87% since the beginning of the year, and more than tripled in the past twelve months.
Two days after the company reported its second quarter earnings results, Macquarie lowered its price target on the company’s HK-listed shares to HK$98 (from HK$99), according to a note obtained by PriceTarget.
The updated target still implies an upside potential of 21.1% based on the close value. Analyst Eugene Hsiao maintained an Outperform rating on the stock.
Citi analyst, however, who maintained a Buy rating on the stock, increased the firm’s price target to HK$114.80, which implies that the share price can go up by 41.9%.
