More insider talk from WSJ:
Mr. Lane has often exercised Oracle options and sold the shares in the past. And Oracle's Mr. Henley says the recent insider sales all reflected regular patterns by the executives who sold. He is the person who has to approve such transactions, the CFO notes, and he says he has in the past blocked executive trades when management was aware of an impending deal or earnings issue; that wasn't the case with the second-quarter shortfall compared to expectations.
"In hindsight, I wish none of us had traded," Mr. Henley says. "It just looks bad." It also doesn't look great that no Oracle insiders have been buying, adds Anthony Marchese, general partner of Laidlaw Insiders Trend Fund L.P. He says that going back over more than five years of insider data, he has never seen an officer or director of the company buying any stock in the open market. That may be because if they want more stock, they have plenty of options they can exercise. Technology companies routinely compensate their executives with thousands of stock options.
Still, says Mr. Marchese, "you would expect once a stock drops sharply, you'd see somebody within the company expressing confidence and buying the stock. We haven't seen that. When I see nothing but insider selling, that's a red flag."
I think it's time to start rethinking these massive stock options. It is not accomplishing what it was supposed to ( ie. putting the insiders in the same boat as investors ). |
