Are whales dipping in and out of this ASX 200 travel share?

There are some massive trades happening with Flight Centre shares this month…

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The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price is once again having a rosy day so far this Tuesday. After yesterday's pleasing and market-bucking performance, this ASX 200 travel share is once again in the green today.

At the time of writing, Flight Centre shares are up by 0.33% to $18.31 each. Perhaps investors have been buoyed by some heavy buying into the company this week.

Yesterday, we covered the emerging news that a monster trade had taken place with Flight Centre shares.

There were early indications that a massive block of 1.2 million shares had changed hands, which was worth around $22.1 million. In fact, 1.2 million shares are worth 0.7% of all the Flight Centre shares on the market, so this was a big move to see for the company.

The transaction took place at a share price of $18.45 each but for now, this is all we know.

Today, some more information has come to light about Flight Centre shares.

The company has just released some details about another dramatic transaction of Flight Centre shares. But this time, it's a sell.

According to the release, investment bank and broker JP Morgan has sold more than two million Flight Centre shares.

This sale was reported as taking place on 9 February (last Thursday) and resulted in JP Morgan reducing its holdings from approximately 13.14 million shares down to 10.98 million shares.

That takes the broker's voting power in the company down from 6.56% to 5.17%.

So there have certainly been some whales making some big moves when it comes to Flight Centre shares of late.

Flight Centre share price snapshot

The Flight Centre share price has had an incredibly strong start to the year. In 2023 so far, this ASX 200 travel share is now up a healthy 27.3%. Saying that though, the company still remains down by 9.6% over the past 12 months.

Factoring in the new shares issued during 2020, Flight Centre shares are also still down more than 70% from their pre-COVID highs of more than $61 each.

At the current Flight Centre share price, this ASX 200 travel share has a market capitalisation of $3.89 billion.

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Flight Centre Travel Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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