McDonald's CEO Nets Millions In Options Gain (MCD)

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) had a substantial insider sale today that may catch some eyes.  Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner unloaded some 150,000 shares via exercised stock options.  Insider sales usually are not a red flag at a company like McDonald’s, but the size here would fit the screen for most CEO and Insider Selling searches that might merit a closer look.

The full SEC Filing shows that the exercise price was listed as $29.43, and the weighted average sale price was listed as $53.5583.

The exercise was more than $4.4145 million and the sale was a total of $8.033 million. That will generate a pre-tax profit of $3,619,245.00.  Maybe for a CEO in today’s world that is just a line item.  He’s also not a CEO that has to answer about any government support.

At $2.99 per Big Mac, it looks like Skinner’s equivalent pre-tax option gains could equate to more than 1.2 million of the sandwiches  And that is before any company discounts.  He still about 189,693 in direct shares and another 80,722 in indirect ownership.

JON C. OGG