Insider activity light in October Some large sales still taking place at Yahoo, Starbucks Despite some large sales at companies such as Yahoo, Starbucks and Juniper last week, October insider activity overall has been light, according to research from Thomson Financial. With only 651 companies reporting insider activity so far during the month, 434 insiders were net acquirers while 832 insiders were net sellers for a seller/acquirer ratio of 1.9, a decline from last week's near 3 to 1 pace.
Among high-level insider trades, the largest deal came from Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) Chairman and CEO Terry Semel, who sold 2.45 million shares acquired through the exercise of options on Oct. 21 at a market value of nearly $86.4 million. This is the largest-ever sale of shares by Semel - and the largest at Yahoo by an individual - and his first sale since July. Semel has sold more than 7.5 million shares this year at a market value of nearly $290 million.
Orrin Clayton Smith, CEO of Starbucks (SBUX: news, chart, profile), was another top seller, selling 750,000 shares at a market value of $37.7 million on Oct. 20. Smith also acquired the shares through the exercise of options, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was Smith's first insider transaction - and the largest at Starbucks - since January, when he sold 999,900 shares through the exercise of options, according to information from Thomson Financial.
Juniper Networks (JNPR: news, chart, profile), the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based designer of Internet protocol network solutions saw CEO Scott Kriens sell 500,000 shares worth $12 million and CFO Marcel Gani sell 100,000 shares worth $2.4 million though the exercising of options.
Andry Bryant, CFO of Intel Corp. (INTC: news, chart, profile), sold 360,000 shares of his company's stock, a market value of more than $7.2 million.
For insider purchases and sales for the week ending Oct. 22, some of the top individual buyers included Garo Armen of Antigenics (AGEN: news, chart, profile), buying 100,000 shares, Bernard Berk of Elite Pharmaceuticals (ELI: news, chart, profile), buying 70,800 shares and Paul Riss of eLec Communications (ELEC: news, chart, profile) buying 50,000 shares.
Nearly 12.3 million shares were traded on the high-level insider level at a market value of nearly $289.6 million for the week ending Oct. 22, up from the nearly 9.1 million shares at a market value of more than $151.4 million the previous week.
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