Incorrect! The only one who sold actual shares he/she owned was the original founder of Incyte: Roy Whitfield (who sold 30K shares) and he does that every year, once or twice a year, consistently.
All the others exercised options, at strike prices which were about $5, $8, $9 and even $17 and $18 (as with Eric Siegel, the chief legal officer).
These were just options exercised and monetized on the same day. If you insist, then they also bought the shares at the correponding exercise prices (cash to Incyte) and then sold them. But, this is not same thing, as you have implied.
Stock options are just another form of compensation (besides salary and cash bonuses). The CFO, founder Whitfield etc, still all own large amounts of stock and/or unexercised options.
The largest single exercise was the CFO Dave Hastings, of 60,000 share options which were due to EXPIRE later this year in the fall of 2013.
Given the sequestration and budget battles (and implied threat of a shutdown looming in the next 3 months), and the way the market reacted the last time around, when the Republicans threatened to shut down the government, it is par for the course.
Remember - it's not just the budget battle - but the increase in the nation's debt ceiling (for budgets they had already passed and authorized the spending).
So, it would be dumb of the some employees not to exerrcise SOME of their execisable options, particularly if they are due to expire in months. |
