David, I didn't interpret the insider sales as anything negative. What was your take on this? It seems it was just some normal sales that happened to occur at a bad time perception wise. As far as the VP who sold all his stock, well, I'm sure he is still sitting on plenty of options. This sale wasn't large and was probably associated with some options finally vesting. It's not like his own personal financial interest in the company has evaporated with this sale (or at least I don't think so).
If you're looking for hard information about insider sales look at Leland. From what I understand most of his personal net worth is in Vivus. He's holding tight. Even if he does sell some, it only indicates to me that he's got a financial advisor who is making a reasonable suggestion to diversify his wealth.
As far as stock buybacks go, I am under the impression at this point that any purchases would have had to cease at the end of November due to our proximity to the end of Vivus' quarter. If anybody knows the regulations concerning this please let me know. Hopefully I'm wrong.
Let's remember when doing our income estimates for coming quarters that we must take into consideration the reduction in cash & cash equivalents that are sure to be coming as a result of getting the new facility going and taxes that will have to be paid. And now we know we're going to build in Ireland also. In the coming quarters we could see our cash postion get cut significantly.
Lastly, does anyone know if there are minimum supply requirements to Astra and Jansen? If so, these are at lower margins and may reduce the amount of product we have available to sell at higher margins here in the U.S. This could have a dramatic negative impact on revenues.
Good luck,
Gary
P.S. I know these are negative comments so I'm sure the accusations will fly - let me answer them now. Yes, I'm still long, but, I've lost so much money that if there was ever any emotional attachment to this stock it's been wrung out of me. It's time we addressed some hard hitting questions whether we want to or not. For example: Is the new plant really going to be on line by February?
BigKNY3, welcome aboard. I appreciate your solid analysis of not only Vivus, but, the ED and pharmaceutical markets in general. |
