Meredith, etal.
I agree with you on the class action lawsuit. I called their investor relations dept. 6/18/98 and immediately got shuffled through to a spokesperson in Finance dept. Hmm- without even asking. In the past, with other companies, this has always indicated spin control.
Their person couldn't pin weakness to anything concrete. As of Thursday mid-day they supposedly didn't know whether they'd hit their quarter-being a small company, always needing to get that $500K sale in the last 2 weeks to get over the hurdle, but expecting traditionally strong second half, thought their full year numbers were achievable. Etc.,etc., etc. It was pretty much the party line MANY companies use when they're getting ready to lower the boom and don't want a full-fledged panic by the public before the i's are dotted. (That's just my opinion, but unfortunately, I've heard it word for word from other companies. To my detriment). And no, they didn't know why volume was exploding as the stock broke. Not a clue.
Here's the rub. After discussing all the insider selling, this guy made note of the fact that they hadn't exhausted last year's share buyback program, intimating that there was the possibility it could be deployed as a stabilizing influence at some point. He also made a point of mentioning that there had been some great buying opportunities when Equinox stock had taken serious whacks in the past. And even mentioned that "people had done extremely well" the last time EQNX had traded at 8. (Stock was 13 3/4 to 14 1/4 at that point, and diving). Interestingly, I didn't see any evidence of a corporate share buyback program during Friday's debacle, but I wasn't totally surprised to see the opening quote after news today at 7 1/2 to 8.
I'm less interested right now in what insider sells were made last week than in what insider buys might have been made today and in the near future as EQNX magically hit 8.
Call me a cynic..... |
