Insiders Unloading Millions Worth Of Stock Via Option & Share Sales (INTU, BIIB, SHW, CF, DIS)

When corporate management and insiders unload shares of stock, investors often look at the transactions.  This is legal insider trading that generally comes from planned share sales and/or via the exercising of options that have vested.  Insider selling can be due to many reasons and it is not always an ominous sign that something is not right at the company.  Still, when you see insiders taking out millions of dollars because of share sales it does tend to stand out.  These are some of the high-dollar transactions we have tracked from Monday (including late Friday evening):

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) shows that Laura Fennell, Senior VP and General Counsel, exercised 20,000 options worth some $625,800 and sold these for $1,147,960.

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) has been a monster stock run, so perhaps it is not unexpected that insiders would again be selling stock. Susan Alexander, General Counsel, exercised 49,800 options at $47.87 worth $2,383,838 and sold these 49,800 shares at roughly $140 for some $6,972,000.  She is having a good week.  A director named Robert Pangia exercised 5,000 options at $36.94 worth some $184,700 and he sold these also at $140.00 or so worth some $700,000.

The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE: SHW) saw its Senior VP of Planning and Development named Steven Oberfeld exercise some 14,000 options at $63.44 per share and he turned around and sold these at an average of $129.45 worth just over $1.8 million.   He still has some 117,000 shares more or less.

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF) is having a good day on its own, but the company’s filings showed that Stephen Wilson (Chairman, CEO, and Prez) exercised some 25,000 at $16.00 worth some $400,000 and then sold these shares at $163.42 for just over $4 million as well.  Rumor has it that he is in a great mood today.  He still has almost 140,000 shares.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) also saw some interesting insider selling. Christine McCarthy, Treasurer, exercised 16,000 options at $31.26 worth about $500,000 and turned around sold these for just over $750,000; CFO James Rasulo exercised 154,000 options at $30.91 for roughly $4.8 million and sold these at $46.75 for nearly $7.2 million.

JON C. OGG