Is UWM Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold After the Company's CEO Sold 1.2M Shares?

Mat Ishbia, President and CEO of UWM Holdings Corporation (NYSE:UWMC), executed open-market sales totaling 1,192,712 shares over October 28, 2025 and October 29, 2025, according to an SEC Form 4 filing.

Transaction summary

Transaction value is based on the SEC Form 4 weighted average purchase price ($5.76) for trades on October 28 and 29, 2025.

Key questions

What portion of Mat Ishbia’s direct holdings was sold in this transaction?
This transaction disposed of approximately 36% of Mat Ishbia’s UWM Holdings Corporation shares, reducing direct and indirect ownership from 3,290,737 shares to 2,098,025 as of October 29, 2025.

How does the trade compare to Mr. Ishbia’s historical transaction cadence and size?
The 1,192,712 shares sold matches Mr. Ishbia’s historical median sell transaction size during the period from August 4, 2025 to October 29, 2025, indicating consistent execution relative to his prior activity.

What is the market context for this disposition?
Shares were priced at a weighted-average of $5.76 for the transaction on October 29, 2025. Over the past year, UWM Holdings Corporation’s shares declined 10.8%.

Does Mr. Ishbia retain any economic interest in UWM Holdings Corporation after this sale?
His direct ownership is now 279,989 shares, and he also indirectly owns 1,818,036 shares through a holding company called SFS Corp.

Company overview

* One-year performance as of October 29, 2025.

Company snapshot

UWM Holdings Corporation is a wholesale mortgage lender in the United States, leveraging a large-scale platform to originate residential loans.

The company offers residential mortgage loan origination services, focusing on conforming and government-backed loans through a wholesale channel. It operates under a wholesale lending business model.

UWM Holdings Corporation serves independent mortgage brokers as its primary customer base within the U.S. residential mortgage market.

Foolish take

UWM CEO Mat Ishbia's October sale of his company's shares isn't necessarily a warning sign for shareholders to sell the stock. That said, Mr. Ishbia sold about a third of his stake in UWM, and that's a sizable chunk.

Mr. Ishbia's sale comes after UWM's share price became elevated after reaching a 52-week high of $7.14 in September. The stock rose following excellent second quarter earnings results. Q2 revenue was $758.7 million, up from $622.4 million in 2024. Also, Q2 net income of $314.5 million was a substantial increase from the previous year's $76.3 million.

However, UWM holds a lot of debt totaling more than $3 billion at the end of Q2, and that's up by more than $1 billion from the prior year. This weighs on the stock, as does the current macroeconomic environment of persistent inflation and elevated interest rates, which create headwinds for UWM in terms of potential growth in the mortgage market.

If you own shares in UWM, you may want to follow Mr. Ishbia's example to sell, or hold on to them pending the company's upcoming third quarter earnings call on Nov. 6. But if you are thinking about buying the stock, wait until those Q3 results are released to assess how the company is doing.

Glossary

Open-market sale: The sale of securities on a public exchange, available to any investor, not through a private transaction.
Direct ownership: Holding shares in your own name, rather than through an entity or trust.
SEC Form 4: A required filing that reports insider trades of a company's stock by officers, directors, or significant shareholders.
Weighted average purchase price: The average price paid per share, weighted by the number of shares in each transaction.
Disposition: The act of selling or otherwise transferring ownership of an asset or security.
Transaction cadence: The frequency and timing pattern of repeated transactions, such as insider stock sales.
Wholesale channel: A business model where products or services are offered to intermediaries (like brokers), not directly to end consumers.
Conforming loan: A mortgage that meets the standards set by government-sponsored enterprises, making it eligible for purchase by them.
Government-backed loan: A mortgage insured or guaranteed by a government agency, such as FHA or VA loans.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Dividend yield: A financial ratio showing how much a company pays in dividends each year relative to its share price.
Insider trading: The buying or selling of a company's stock by someone with access to material, nonpublic information about the company.

Robert Izquierdo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.