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Apple SVP Bob Mansfield Sells Off 99% of AAPL Shares

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Apr 12, 2001
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Fortune notes that Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering Bob Mansfield sold off 99% of his Apple stock holdings on Monday, dropping his stake in the company to only 501 shares.One of the more pro-active traders is Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president in charge of Mac and iPhone hardware engineering. Not only does he exercise his options when the stock is high -- always a good idea -- but he picks up extra shares at the 15% employee discount when the stock is down.

On Monday, according to an SEC Form 4 filed yesterday, he executed his biggest trade yet, selling 38,863 shares of Apple at $351.89 each, clearing $13,675,504.96 in the deal and leaving only 501 shares in his portfolio.Mansfield still holds vested options for another 30,000 shares and will be granted an additional 100,000 shares in 2014 should he stay with company, meaning that he still has a significant stake in the company even though he has converted almost all of his most liquid Apple assets into cash.

The report notes that Mansfield has sold off nearly $58.5 million worth of Apple stock over the past three years, strategically exercising options and selling off his holdings for solid profits and buying in on stock price dips to maximize his returns. Mansfield has been at Apple since 1999.

Article Link: Apple SVP Bob Mansfield Sells Off 99% of AAPL Shares
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/04/27/apple-svp-bob-mansfield-sells-off-99-of-aapl-shares/
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Fair do's to the guy!
 
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Damn that is a lot of money.
 
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Man, good for him!
 
Normally this would send a stock tanking, but if this guy has been pretty consistently doing this with his options/shares, then it's not really news, and share prices shouldn't be affected by this.

I suspect the article is just highlighting this pattern with Bob Mansfield so that no one gets the wrong idea.
 
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Hell yeah!!
Go Bob! Go Bob!
It's yo birthday! It's yo birthday!
Srrrrrcub the ground!
As long as Apple keeps making killer tech I'll buy it no matter what!
 
It's never smart to keep your investment in your employer's stock, although it sounds like his purpose is to time the market, not avoid the "Enron problem".
 
I'm going to hope this is a ~$350 triggered trade. I considered doing as much (setting a hard price near pre-leave levels at which I'd sell) after the price drop when Jobs went on his current/second leave. If Jobs were to become incapacitated, I can't imagine what would happen to the stock price, deserved or not. Selling now that AAPL's nearly back to pre-Jobsian levels is just smart. Reduces exposure. Puts the bird in the hand, etc.

But this also tells us Mansfield thinks there's no safer time to sell between now and his next option. I understand $350 being "good enough", but when your hardware guy doesn't see a reason to stick around, that's bad news. I mean, he can't help but be doing a little insider trading, right?

This is likely A Bad Thing for AAPL owners, and can be no better than A Neutral Thing, and the latter only if Mansfield isn't real bright, which we know isn't the case. How close we are to the former rather than the latter would seem to be at least partially correlated with Mansfield's business acumen.
 
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He looks like a horse race better to me.

You know how it is. You spend all day at the track and end up $13 million in the hole...your bookie's gonna cap your knees...so you gotta sell your stock.

Same ol' same ol'.
 
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No, a share sale this tiny by a minor executive would not send any stock tanking.
 
rufwork said:
I'm going to hope this is a ~$350 triggered trade. I considered doing as much (setting a hard price near pre-leave levels at which I'd sell) after the price drop when Jobs went on his current/second leave. If Jobs were to become incapacitated, I can't imagine what would happen to the stock price, deserved or not. Selling now that AAPL's nearly back to pre-Jobsian levels is just smart. Reduces exposure. Puts the bird in the hand, etc.

But this also tells us Mansfield thinks there's no safer time to sell between now and his next option. I understand $350 being "good enough", but when your hardware guy doesn't see a reason to stick around, that's bad news. I mean, he can't help but be doing a little insider trading, right?

This is likely A Bad Thing for AAPL owners, and can be no better than A Neutral Thing, and the latter only if Mansfield isn't real bright, which we know isn't the case. How close we are to the former rather than the latter would seem to be at least partially correlated with Mansfield's business acumen.
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Did you read the article?

Over the past three years, Mansfield has sold nearly $58.5 million worth of Apple stock -- most of it acquired by exercising options and restricted stock units (RSUs). Over that period, roughly $20.6 million was set aside for taxes, leaving him with a net gain of nearly $37.9 million.
Click to expand...

It's not like he decided to dump all his shares. You can't make money unless you sell your shares.
 
rufwork said:
I'm going to hope this is a ~$350 triggered trade. I considered doing as much
Click to expand...

It legally has to be. Well, not triggered by price, necessarily, but it had to be declared either well in advance, or triggered by some other pattern. Otherwise it would be insider trading.
 
rufwork said:
I mean, he can't help but be doing a little insider trading, right?
Click to expand...
No. SEC regulation forbids this. Mansfield makes his stock sales pursuant to a pre-established 10b5-1 plan, likely initiated months before the first sale he ever made (but, as you suggest, this most recent sale could have been triggered by the stock hitting $350).

Given the options that stand to mature into another 130,000 shares in the next three years, best not to put all his eggs in one basket. Cash is always king.
 
rufwork said:
But this also tells us Mansfield thinks there's no safer time to sell between now and his next option. I understand $350 being "good enough", but when your hardware guy doesn't see a reason to stick around, that's bad news. I mean, he can't help but be doing a little insider trading, right?
Click to expand...


You are grossly predicting the reason he is selling. Are you a soothsayer? There are plenty of other reasons to sell that have zero to do with Apple's business prospects or his own at Apple. It could be fear of a cap gain increase in 2012, or the need to get into cash for personal reasons, or a desire to diversify his portfolio or a million other things. This sale tells us only one thing for sure: that he sold a lot of stock.
 
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