Is Semtech Stock a Buy or Sell After the COO Sold 10,000 Shares?

On Feb. 2, 2026, Asaf Silberstein, EVP and COO of Semtech Corporation (SMTC 1.88%), executed an open-market sale of 10,000 directly-held shares, totaling ~$880,000 in transaction value according to the SEC Form 4 filing.

Transaction summary

Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 reported price ($88.00); post-transaction value based on Feb. 2, 2026 market close ($87.76).

Key questions

• How does the scale of this sale compare to Mr. Silberstein’s historical trading activity?
  This 10,000-share sale was materially larger than Mr. Silberstein’s recent median sell transaction of 2,000 shares, and also surpassed the historical median of 4,000 shares per sale; it accounted for 11.30% of direct holdings compared to a recent median of 1.89% per transaction.
• Did this transaction involve any indirect holdings or trust-related entities?
  While all shares sold were held directly according to the SEC filing, the stock is held by the Silberstein Family Trust with Asaf Silberstein serving as a trustee.
• What was the market context at the time of the transaction, and how does it relate to recent price performance?
  The shares were sold at around $88.00 per share, close to the Feb. 2, 2026 market close of $87.76. As of the transaction date, Semtech had delivered a 38.3% one-year total return, situating the sale within a period of strong price appreciation.
• Is the elevated transaction size best explained by an intentional increase in cadence or by declining available holdings?
  The larger trade volume reflects Mr. Silberstein’s reduced share capacity after a series of sales since January 2025, with remaining direct holdings now at 78,496 shares — down from 111,996 at the start of the period — indicating the increase in transaction size is a function of diminishing available shares rather than a discretionary escalation in selling cadence.

Company overview

• 1-year performance is calculated using Feb. 2, 2026 as the reference date.

Company snapshot

• Semtech Corporation offers analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, including signal integrity solutions, protection devices, wireless and sensing technologies, and power management products.
• It generates revenue by designing, manufacturing, and selling integrated circuits and systems for infrastructure, industrial, communications, and consumer applications.
• The company serves original equipment manufacturers and their suppliers across enterprise computing, communications, industrial, and consumer markets globally.

Semtech Corporation is a diversified semiconductor company with a global footprint, specializing in high-performance analog and mixed-signal solutions. The company leverages innovation in signal integrity, power management, and wireless connectivity to address the demands of data centers, industrial automation, and communications infrastructure.

What this transaction means for investors

Semtech Chieft Operating Officer Asaf Silberstein’s sale of 10,000 shares is not a red flag. The transaction was executed as part of Mr. Silberstein’s’ Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. He adopted the plan in September of 2025.

A Rule 10b5-1 trading plan is often implemented by insiders to avoid accusations of making trades based on insider information. In addition, he retained over 78,000 shares after the sale, suggesting he is not in a rush to dump the stock.

Mr. Silberstein’s transaction comes at a time when Semtech stock is soaring. Shares have been rising for months, eventually hitting a 52-week high of $93.96 on Feb. 25.

Semtech is seeing a share price increase thanks to artificial intelligence. The company sells components used in data centers, where AI systems are housed. Demand for more AI computing capacity has led to the construction of more data center space, resulting in rising sales for Semtech.

The company posted record revenue of $267 million in its fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 26. This represented strong 13% year-over-year growth. Despite the sales increase, Semtech suffered a fiscal Q3 net loss of $2.9 million.

Still, AI should provide a strong tailwind for sales to continue growing. However, its share price valuation has gotten expensive. Its price-to-sales ratio of about eight is higher than it’s been in over a year. This makes now a good time for shareholders to sell, but not for investors to buy.