Westell Technologies - WSTL
April 3, 1998
Number of Insiders
Number of Shares Bought/Sold
Total Value
6 310,000 $4,340,000
Many on the Street regard this stock as a speculative issue, as frequent price per share sturm and drang has made this stock volatile. In fact, the stock is down almost 80% since April '96; however, many on the street are convinced the company has a strong future and that it's stock will be transformed into a long-term idea. Westell has invested heavily in long-term research and development and recent news of the future deployment of ADSL technology might appear to make this issue's future almost ironclad. Despite the loss of the Amati deal to Texas Instruments, a necessary acquisition to launch ADSL technology, Amati gave Westell preferential access to Amati's DMT chips. What could prove troubling in the near term, however, is the ADSL Lite initiative by Compaq, Microsoft and Intel-now market leaders in the ADSL sector. Westell expected to see profitability by the year 2000, but because of the aforementioned coalition, they may have to push that date back and insider behavior does not reflect any optimism in the stock's short-term rebound . Six insiders have sold or filed to sell 301,000 shares on the open market at $16 to $13.11 per share from December 9 to February 2. CEO Robert Faw filed to sell or disposed of nearly 30% of his holdings, 29,000 shares, and CEO Gary Seamans sold 95,000 shares. Director Stefan Abrams unloaded 35% of his holdings-78,500 shares. Curious still is the repricing of executive stock options-marked down twice in one year, perhaps a short term way of rewarding mediocrity. No less curious is that insiders are not taking advantage of the lower strike prices. Westell Technologies develops telecommunications products that help telephone companies upgrade existing network infrastructures.
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