COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. - CPQ -- On the heels of a stellar '97, shares of Compaq Computer Corp. have weathered a choppy '98. Insiders at the company, somewhat regular sellers in the past, not only have continued their sales into a relatively weak chart pattern, but there are reasons to suspect that in subtle ways, the activity has intensified. In all, from October 16 through November 19, eight Compaq insiders sold or filed intentions to sell a total of 1,697,102 shares at indicated prices ranging from $27.31-$34.59 per share. Notable among the recent sellers, Chairman Benjamin Rosen filed an intention to sell 500,000 shares. SVP & GM, Services John Rando filed to sell even more-582,518 shares. Not insignificantly, the transaction will reduce Mr. Rando's position by nearly one half. SVP & GM, Manufacturing & Quality Gregory Petsch filed his intention to sell 403,333 shares. SVP & GM, Enterprise Computing John Rose and SVP & GM, Worldwide Sales & Marketing Michael Heil filed to sell 40,000 shares and 41,251 shares, respectively. Among the remaining sellers, Director Peter Larson sold 60,000 shares, while SVP, PC Products Group Michael Winkler filed to sell 50,000 shares. It is, in fact, the behavior of these latter sellers that we find most intriguing. Consider, for example, that Mr. Larson, a filer since '93, did not sell shares until April of this year-since which time he has sold a total of 120,000 shares. Likewise, of the total 296,503 (split adjusted) shares sold by Mr. Winkler since '95, a full 240,000 shares have been sold since the stock entered into its current trading pattern in the fall of last year. Taken as a whole, the picture developing at Compaq may well warrant watching. Compaq Computer Corp. designs, develops, manufactures and markets a range of computing products, including desktop and portable computers and tower PC servers.
from CDA |
