Let the blame game commence....
Funny that bubble bloggers were reporting on Bob Toll and others dumping way back in 2005, and here we are in October 2006, a year later, and the MSM finally does a "shocking expose".
Blogs folks - it's how people will get their news and opinion in the future. Especially as MSM publications start to fold as their REIC ads dwindle.
Home builders' CEOs make timely stock
Investors hurt by the sharp slide in home-builder stocks might now wish they'd kept a closer eye on what industry executives were doing with their own holdings.
CEOs of three of the top eight U.S. home builders sold large amounts of stock last year and avoided some of the financial pain since the shares peaked, a review of regulatory filings for USA TODAY by Thomson Financial shows.
So concentrated selling, or buying, by insiders can be a cue for individual investors. "We don't know for sure what's in the hearts of insiders," LoPresti says. But in his opinion, "It was extreme activity."
The selling was well-timed. The eight home builders' shares peaked on July 20, 2005, with a collective gain of 47% for the year, data from Standard & Poor's Capital IQ show. Since then, bad news has buffeted the industry, including a three-year low in housing starts in August. As a group, the stocks are now 41% below their 2005 peak.
October 05, 2006
Six months later and waaaayyy to late for investors, USAToday picks up story about Bob Toll and friends dumping shares last summer
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Which Housing CEO will be the first to go to jail?
Bruce Karatz - KB Homes
Washington Mutual
Countrywide
the issue is not 'adjusting his portfolio'. No, this issue like all insider stock swindles is dumping shares on inside information while promoting your stock and falseholds regarding conditions to your shareholders
but, they look so friendly and honest, you know like really nice boys - Wally and Beaver Cleaver types.
dumping shares ala Ken Lay of enron!
It was the amount of shares sold and the timing of the sales.. Sales by major shareholders that can control board members and company officers, such as CEO's, are by definition insider sales. This is why they have to be disclosed to the SEC and done in such a circumspect manner; to prevent being nailed for insider trading they need to telegraph to the world what they are doing, forcing them to act like long term investors. Most of the CEO's worth their stock options have figured this out and have a long term holdings and diversification plan in place. In other words, generally inclined to work for the shareholders, and their own, best interests. They have also figured out that, while they may be legally allowed to exercise options and/or sell stock whenever they want within their restriction windows, they probably shouldn't do so in a manner that looks bad or they'll risk a perp walk anyways if things go bad and the Feds arrive ahead of the torch bearing mobs of media and public distain.
The only ones that get tripped up and nailed by this are the idiots or those unclear on the concept, in which case they probably deserve the trouble they get and were of questionable value as a CEO in the first place. I'd say that Ken Lay fell into this category and, probably, Bob Toll will also. All because they were being greedy bozos, the smart move would have been to leave some more chips at risk on the table or sell in regularly scheduled increments to assuage the Feds that you weren't raiding the company.
--Andrew
And while they were selling their insider shares, they were talking up the markets. Shisters all.
Toll iz scum.
Post a Comment