Associated Press writer May Wong reported that moves to sell stock by Apple executives have been questioned by analysts recently in a new article entitled Apple Execs’ Stock Sales Studied.
Apple executives have sold millions of dollars’ worth of company stock twice within the past two years weeks before poor financial reports came to bear, asserted Wong. While it could be coincidence, Wong said the moves have raised red flags in the offices of analysts who study such events.
Thomson Financial director of insider research Lon Gerber called the sell-offs “well-timed,” and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc. director of research Martin Friedman called the stock trades “a bit suspicious.”
The suggestion of impropriety has evoked a strong reaction from Apple CFO Fred Anderson, who declared in a written statement that “no executive would have exercised options” under those circumstances.
Wong added that the Securities and Exchange Commission had no comment on the matter.