Apple's Retail Chief Angela Ahrendts and Top Lawyer Bruce Sewell Each Sell Over $10 Million in Stock

[MacRumors]

Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts and top lawyer Bruce Sewell each sold over $10 million in company stock over the past week, according to a pair of disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pursuant to her trading plan adopted in February, Ahrendts sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock between May 4 and May 8, netting nearly $11.1 million based on the weighted average sale price of the five transactions. Ahrendts still owns 103,116 shares in Apple following the sale, worth nearly $16 million.

Sewell sold 67,500 shares of Apple stock in multiple transactions on May 5, netting just over $10 million based on the weighted average sale price. Sewell still owns 141,325 shares in Apple following the sale, worth nearly $22 million.

Ahrendts has served as Apple's Senior Vice President of Retail since 2014, overseeing the company's physical and online storefronts. Under her leadership, Apple has been renovating several of its stores, partly in an effort to turn them into community gathering places rather than just sales floors.

Sewell has served as Apple's General Counsel since 2009, overseeing all legal matters, including corporate governance, intellectual property, litigation and securities compliance, global security, and privacy. He came into the spotlight last year twice during separate battles with the FBI and Spotify.

Article Link: Apple's Retail Chief Angela Ahrendts and Top Lawyer Bruce Sewell Each Sell Over $10 Million in Stock

 

[vmachiel]

Yeah, you make that money!

 

[belltree]

Must be nice!

 

[happydude]

must be nice.
[doublepost=1494341829][/doublepost]

Must be nice!

ha. well played.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Before people start claiming that this indicates a downfall coming for Apple, know that executives can only sell stock at certain times which are dictated by their contracts. They can't simply sell any time they think things are going to go bad.

They must also file these sales months ahead of time. This prevents any of them from dumping their stock if they've got inside information that something bad is coming.

 

[NachoGrande]

Smart.

 

[djcerla]

Not the worst time to sell some juicy AAPL.

Probably not the best time neither.

 

[tooltalk]

time to short AAPL?

 

[gnasher729]

time to short AAPL?

You go ahead and short AAPL. We all bow to your great knowledge of the workings of the stock market.

Except oldschoolmacguy who already explained why you are wrong

 

[Solomani]

Why wouldn't they sell (at least some) of their shares? It's at an all time high. A big bull run for AAPL doesn't happen very often.

 

[MrX8503]

100,000 shares of AAPL. That's insane.

 

[FrenchRoasted]

$10 Mil for watch bands, not bad. In all seriousness, this shows that Apple is a normal, large corporation, not a special progressive utopian organization. Their top brass get compensated with eye watering amounts of money just like the rest of the 1%. I'm not indicting the free market system as we don't have one.

 

[jdiamond]

You go ahead and short AAPL. We all bow to your great knowledge of the workings of the stock market.

Except oldschoolmacguy who already explained why you are wrong

I agree that the timing isn't a big deal, but you should pay attention to the fraction of their stock they sold: If they believe the stock price will be going up, they'll sell a smaller fraction of their shares than if they believe it's peaked.

 

[lellis2k]

I have 3 shares in AAPL, it sounds so pitiful but I just like that I have some

 

[delonholmes]

She looks like a female Tim Cook..

edit: typo

 

[xalea]

Angela's spray tans must be getting really expensive.

 

[gnasher729]

Why wouldn't they sell (at least some) of their shares? It's at an all time high. A big bull run for AAPL doesn't happen very often.

Share buys and sells by insiders have to be announced to the SEC months ahead. So they didn't know the shares would be at an all-time high. If they _knew_, it would have been insider trading.

In reality, these people just have lots of share options, and since you can't buy a house, a car, or anything else with share options, they sell some from time to time to buy whatever they want.

I agree that the timing isn't a big deal, but you should pay attention to the fraction of their stock they sold: If they believe the stock price will be going up, they'll sell a smaller fraction of their shares than if they believe it's peaked.

Oh, there's another one. These sales were submitted to the SEC months and months ago. What these people think about the share price today is completely irrelevant. What they thought six months ago is relevant. A company executive can't just say "I think the share price is high today, I'll sell some shares".

And the number of shares sold don't depend on where they think the share price will go. It depends on how much cash they want to be able to buy things.

 

[Mr. Skeleton]

Before people start claiming that this indicates a downfall coming for Apple, know that executives can only sell stock at certain times which are dictated by their contracts. They can't simply sell any time they think things are going to go bad.

They must also file these sales months ahead of time. This prevents any of them from dumping their stock if they've got inside information that something bad is coming.

Stock price goes up on rumor. Falls on news.

Very strategic move to sell 3 weeks prior to WWDC - regardless if they had to inform of the sale months in advance.

I'd wager something significant will be announced in WWDC.

 

[jordii]

I have 3 shares in AAPL, it sounds so pitiful but I just like that I have some

Not pitiful. Only certain people, even in the richest country at its richest point, can park $500 like that. Very few in the world, overall. And, over world history (adjusting for historical currency values) you're downright rich.

I have non-impoverished friends in Mexico with decent standards of living who just laughed and laughed at me when I proposed they take a $300 flight to visit me in NYC, though it's been the dream of their lifetime.

 

[tooltalk]

You go ahead and short AAPL. We all bow to your great knowledge of the workings of the stock market.

Except oldschoolmacguy who already explained why you are wrong

Of course, all Apple insiders are all bounded by Rule 10b5. Ahrendt made $28M last year and was the highest paid executive at Apple. I'm just wondering what the rush is?

 

[Zirel]

Stock price goes up on rumor. Falls on news.

Very strategic move to sell 3 weeks prior to WWDC - regardless if they had to inform of the sale months in advance.

I'd wager something significant will be announced in WWDC.

WWDC is just a software even, they aren't announcing sales (besides "we're so much better than Android, you are on the right path writing Apps for iOS"), they aren't probably announcing new products, and certainly they aren't announcing new important products (new or updates). WWDC doesn't matter for Wall Street.
[doublepost=1494344016][/doublepost]

Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts and top lawyer Bruce Sewell each sold over $10 million in company stock over the past week, according to a pair of disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Responsible for them to sell their shares right now, were the outlook is positive.

 

[Carnegie]

Share buys and sells by insiders have to be announced to the SEC months ahead. So they didn't know the shares would be at an all-time high. If they _knew_, it would have been insider trading.

In reality, these people just have lots of share options, and since you can't buy a house, a car, or anything else with share options, they sell some from time to time to buy whatever they want.



Oh, there's another one. These sales were submitted to the SEC months and months ago. What these people think about the share price today is completely irrelevant. What they thought six months ago is relevant. A company executive can't just say "I think the share price is high today, I'll sell some shares".

And the number of shares sold don't depend on where they think the share price will go. It depends on how much cash they want to be able to buy things.

Such sales do not have to be announced or submitted to the SEC months ahead of time. They just have to be reported with 3 days (i.e. after the shares are sold).

To be safer from insider trading allegations, such sales are often made pursuant to a trading plan which the insider sets up ahead of time - sometimes that's a month ahead of time, sometimes it's years ahead of time. But that plan isn't submitted to the SEC ahead of time. The Form 4 which reports the sales typically notes that they were made pursuant to a trading plan. In this case, Mr. Sewell's did not. That happens sometimes as well. It isn't a requirement that such sales be made pursuant to a trading plan. It's just generally advisable because, as I suggested, such a plan can provide a defense against insider trading allegations. But an insider can wake up one day and decide to sell shares. That, in itself, is not illegal (or insider trading).

 

[Muzzakus]

Where there's smoke, there's fire

 

[576316]

Being a top manager at a FTSE 500 company is pretty damn lucrative. You're an instant multi millionaire.

 

[Carnegie]

I wouldn't be surprised to see another filing for Ms. Ahrendts today reporting that she sold another 4,000 plus shares. Last Monday she got a little over 79,000 shares (net of tax withholding) that was part of the package she was given when she came to Apple. On Thursday, Friday and Monday she sold 25,000 shares a day. Those sales have to be reported within 3 days. So if the intent was to sell all of the shares she got last week, she couldn't wait another day to include the last 4,000 or so shares that she'd be selling.