ARTERIAL VASCULAR ENG - AVEI -- Arterial Engineering shares have held up well in the current market meltdown. As of this writing, Vascular they continue to trade above both they're 200 and 50 day moving averages; certainly a feat considering the recent state of market affairs. Recent late-July sales by four insiders totaling 315,000 shares at prices ranging from $39.50 to $43.75 have caught our eye as they find confirmation in an additional hedge, through a Zero Cost Collar, of 600,000 shares by CFO John Miller. On July 24th, Miller wrote calls (exercisable at $61.01) for 600,000 shares. In the offsetting transaction, he bought puts (exercisable at $34.05) for the same amount of shares. The trade does not expire until 7/30/01. This is the second time he's done this so far this year. On Jan. 29, he entered into a similar collar where he wrote calls (exercisable at $54.78) for 600,000 shares and bought puts for the same amount (exercisable at $28.66). These trades effectively hedge 1.2 million of his 3.8 million share position. This represents one of the largest hedges, with regards to an insider's overall position, we've seen. Miller's actions, unnoticed by most, are a big addition to an insider picture that had already caught our eye this year; prior to consideration of his hedges, insider sales at the company stood at record levels this year.
cda.com
Looks like the price war in the stent market could erode AVEI's price a bit more in the future. Any opinions out there?
InvestRight
Regards, Jeff
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