Not an opposing argument, just some facts gleaned from Yahoo in re insider sales of Qualcomm stock. Yes, over the past six months insiders have sold 10% of their holdings or about 3.5 million shares. Presumably during that same period of time they were accruing ownership in additional shares.
I thought it would be interesting to look at the transactions of the "hands-on" insiders, P. Jacobs, Altman, Keitel and Sanjay, since arguably they know the most of what is going on. Of the 3.5 million shares sold by insiders in the past six months the "hands-on" insiders collectively sold approximatley 2 million shares. And when I say sold, I included all transactions, planned sales, option exercises, sales by family trusts, etc.
The interesting thing is that the distribution over the past six months for these four insiders was almost exactly even. Collectively they sold 1.1 million shares in the first quarter and just over 1 million the second quarter. In the first quarter Q stock ranged from 48-52 and in the second quarter from 52-38. If they "knew" what was coming I would have thought they would have sold a higher percentage in the first quarter. I would also note that most of the compensation of these "hands-on" insiders comes from their stock compensation. In 05 P. Jacobs and Altman and Keitel made about $1 million in salary and bonuses while Keitel made a little over $800K. From these facts, and I sure don't claim to be expert in executive compensation, I don't see any signs of a "bailout". |
