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A stock selloff by Mattel executives in the wake of the blockbuster “Barbie” film has raised eyebrows and “red flags” among some Wall Street watchers.

The stock sales, while perfectly legal experts stressed, may mean Mattel’s brass believe the pink tide that lifted the company’s value has crested, according to VerityData, an investment research firm that tracks insider buying, selling and buyback activity.

When we see insiders selling aggressively into the the rise of the stock it raises red flags about the sustainability of this stocks valuation, Ben Silverman, director of research for VerityData, told The Post.

Mattel’s stock is up about 21% this year, fueled by the buzz around “Barbie,” which was released July 21 and has since grossed more than $1 billion.

Five senior Mattel executive sold 275,800 shares over the past 10 days according to government filings. The average sale price of $21.21 netted them about $4.2 million, according to VerityData.

The trades stand out, Silverman said, because Mattel insiders rarely sell their shares.

Since July 31, Mattel officers have dumped more shares than the 248,000 sold by insiders in the previous 9.5 years, Silverman said.

Three of the Mattel executives were first-time sellers, including head of human resources, Amanda Thompson, who joined the company  in 2017, Jonathan Anschell, who has been the companys legal counsel since 2021 and Yoon Hugh, the companys controller since 2019, VerityData found.

The others include Steve Totzke, president and chief commercial officer, and Roberto Isaias, Mattel’s chief supply chain officer, according to the firm.

All the trades were made days after the company reported its financial results on July 26, avoiding any legal impropriety but not scrutiny.

Seeing five executives trading all at once, raises questions, said Thomas Gorman, a former SEC official and current partner in law firm Dorsey & Whitney. You dont usually see that kind of a pattern coming out of a sophisticated company like Mattel.

The selloff could suggests that the pop in Mattels stock may not be sustainable, according to VerityData.

We are telling our clients that insiders are sending a message that the stock is over-valued, Silverman said.

Even before the movie was released, Wall Street experts questioned Barbie’s halo effect on the Segundo, Calif-based toy giant.

“We worry somewhat about Mattel’s long-term management of Barbie’s positioning,” wrote DA Davidson analyst Linda Bolton Weiser in a July 17 note, recalling a period 10 years ago when moms were “anti-Barbie.”

The trades by the insiders also come after longtime Mattel chief operating officer Richard Dickson known as the Barbie whisperer quit the company to take over struggling retailer Gap. 

Mattel declined to comment.

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Science

NASA’s SPHEREx Telescope Delivers First Full-Sky Map, Unlocking Cosmic Secrets

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NASA’s SPHEREx telescope has completed its first all-sky map, revealing hundreds of millions of galaxies and providing data to study the universe’s origin, evolution, and distribution of life-essential elements across cosmic history.

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Science

Robotic Arm Achieves 1,000 Tasks in a Day Through Innovative Imitation Learning

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A robotic arm mastered 1,000 manipulation tasks in one day using MT3 imitation learning, requiring only one demonstration per task and minimal data.

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‘Witch hunt’: Ex-EU commissioner Breton denounces U.S. visa ban targeting ‘censorship’

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'Witch hunt': Ex-EU commissioner Breton denounces U.S. visa ban targeting 'censorship'

A former EU commissioner has hit back after receiving a U.S. visa ban for alleged censorship.

The Trump administration imposed visa bans on Thierry Breton, a former European Union commissioner behind the Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, accusing them of censoring U.S. social media platforms.

“The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

He added that “these radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states—in each case targeting American speakers and American companies.”

As such, their entry to the U.S. has “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” he said.

“Based on these determinations, the Department has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on agents of the global censorship-industrial complex who, as a result, will be generally barred from entering the United States.”

Breton, who served as EU commissioner between 2019 and 2024, wrote on X: “As a reminder: 90% of the European Parliament — our democratically elected body — and all 27 Member States unanimously voted the DSA.”

“To our American friends: “Censorship isn’t where you think it is.””

President Trump expands travel ban

It comes as President Donald Trump continues to ramp up travel restrictions for foreign visitors and criticizes Europe.

Rubio did not identify who his department had taken action against, however Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers later did so on X.

Josephine Ballon, the co-leader of HateAid who serves on Germany’s Advisory Council of the Digital Services, was among those working on anti-disinformation campaigns to receive sanctions. Her co-leader Anna-Lena von Hodenberg was also affected. CNBC has reached out to Ballon and Von Hodenberg for comment.

The bans are part of efforts to enforce what Rogers refers to as a “red line” for the U.S. and the “extraterritorial censorship of Americans.”

In an interview with GB news on Dec. 4, Rogers took aim at the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA), saying the law was being applied extraterritorially, accounting for U.S. citizens’ speech about U.S. politics on U.S.-based platforms.

Europe’s DSA and the U.K.’s OSA are among only a handful of pieces of legislation designed to keep the power of Big Tech in check and improve safety for children online.

The DSA forces tech giants like Google and Meta to police illegal content more aggressively, or face hefty fines, while the OSA law requires age verification on adult sites and a number of other platforms.

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