Apple CFO Files To Sell Another 100,000 AAPL Shares, Four Insider Transactions In Two Weeks

by , 8:00 AM EDT, May 6th, 2002

Dow Jones reported on Friday that Apple CFO Fred Anderson has filed to sell another 100,000 shares of his Apple holdings. This marks the fourth incident of insider transactions from Apple's inner circle of executives during the last two weeks.

Mr. Anderson filed to sell 100,000 shares of AAPL for April 23rd, and Senior Vice President Nancy Heinen filed to sell 125,000 shares of her holdings for a sale on April 30th. Apple Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Operations, Timothy Cook filed to sell 25,000 shares of Apple's stock on April 22nd. Mr. Anderson's second filing says that his own sale of stock was also to take place on April 30th. Executives of publicly held companies are required by the SEC to formally file their stock transactions involving stock from the company for whom they work. From the Dow Jones report:

Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Fred D. Anderson has filed to sell 100,000 shares of the company's common stock, according to a Form 144 released Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Anderson listed April 30 as the approximate date of sale for the shares, which he valued at $2.4 million.

The filing listed Charles Schwab & Co . as the broker for the sales.

In all of 2001, there were two sell transactions filed with the SEC. Gareth Chang sold 60,000 shares optioned for the purpose of selling on October 22nd, 2001. Mitch Mandich, ousted Vice President of Worldwide Sales (retirement announced in October of 2000), optioned and sold more than 245,000 shares in March of 2001.

Also during 2001 was a purchase of 50,000 by Arthur D. Levinson, a director on Apple's Board.

The last two weeks have seen two times the sell transactions as all of 2001. You can see all of Apple's insider transactions at Yahoo!'s Web site. Apple's stock closed on Friday at 23.51, down 0.18 (-0.76%) on moderately light volume of 4,122,000 shares trading hands. Join in on the discussion of insider transactions in our Apple Finance Boards.

If you are interested in Apple's stock, join our forum members in the Apple Finance Boards, a moderated forum for Apple Investors and people who are interested in Apple's financial dealings. For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report.

The Mac Observer Spin:

As we have commented in our other coverage of these insider transactions, there are many reasons why insiders start buying or selling stock. Buying is usually seen as confidence in the company by the people leading that company, just as the reverse is also true; insider selling is usually seen as a sign of lagging confidence. Four transactions do not an Enron make, seriously, but it bears watching, which is why the SEC requires company execs make these filings. Apple's stock has been in a holding pattern for the last 18 months, and it is highly likely that Messrs. Anderson and Cook, and Miss Heinen finally felt it was time to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor.

In point of fact, the main reason this bears noticing at all is that there has been so little insider selling at Apple for years, including up to and during the market route of the last two years. This was in marked contrast to many, many other execs in the technology sector that were bailing out of their company stocks only slightly slower than those same stocks were plummeting in value. Apple's lineup is stronger than it has ever been, and the company seems poised for growth. Apple has performed well as a company at a time when most of its Wintel competitors have not done so, and Mr. Anderson has given conservative estimates for the June Quarter and the rest of Fiscal 2002 that still have the company doing well. We have no reason to doubt him.