Steve Case is a very smart man and he puts his money where his mouth is. Steve has repeatedly mentioned that the $ 2/mo increase is necessary to cover increasing costs, ands that will not filter to the bottom line. However analysts keep saying otherwise. In addition, Steve has a powerful and smart brother Daniel who heads H&Q. No doubt he would consult his brother before he decided to sell 500K shares.
The chronology of the sale:
Monday, 2/23/98: AOL reached an all time high: 125
Wed & Thu 2/25 ans 2/26: Steve and 5 other AOL insiders sold 676,365 shares. Sale price was not disclosed, but AOL share prices for those 2 days : High 124 Low 118.
Mr Bob Gabele, president of CDA/Investnet, a database that tracks insider selling and buying said that Mr. Case sold 333,500 shares in all 1997. His current sale represents a liquidation of 39.6% of Steve's common stock and vested options. This figure is much higher than the 15% (by counting unvested stock option) mentioned by AOL's spokeperson.
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Then as we can expect, analysts start to :
- reiterate AOL "strong buy": Mr. Henry M Blodget, Internet analyst at CIBC Oppenheimer. "Mr Case is probably selling most of what he will sell this fiscal year, which ends in June", Mr Blodget said
- "I remain very bullish on the (AOL) stock," said Mr Alan Braverman, Internet and new-media analyst at CS First Boston in New York', and he added that AOL is one of his top picks
Good luck to all
PAL
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