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GT Advanced CEO Sold Off Stock Ahead of iPhone 6 Announcement
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Yeah, that's why I bought as soon as I heard they were filing for bankruptcy protection. Their underlying business was viable, they were just hit bad by the sapphire iPhone business.
Rumours were not that GT couldn't provide the sapphire, but that the Chinese had too much difficulty working with it and couldn't get yield rates to an acceptable level in time for mass-production. There was a rumour here that they missed the deadline by "weeks" (inferring that they kept working on it and yields later improved).
Given that, I don't see any reason Apple wouldn't still be interested in GT's sapphire for future products. There's obviously the iWatch, but also future iPhones.
Buying GTA stock now is probably not a bad move while the price is so low. Apple is not their only customer by any means, although perhaps their customer with potential to be their largest. And it seems GTA is still set to be the exclusive sapphire supplier for the iWatch. They still make the sapphire for the camera lenses and Touch ID home buttons on all the iPhones.
That isn't as sketchy as selling off shares a month before filing for bankruptcy protection.
The CEO may have benefited from the speculations of others about his company, but I've heard no evidence to indicate that he stoked those rumors for his personal financial gain.
So Apple had 10s of millions of gorilla glass screens just waiting in the wings and didn't decide until a few weeks before production that they wouldn't be using sapphire screens? I have a hard time believing that.
Sapphire is much more prone to shattering from fall damage than gorilla class so unless they fixed that issue I still don't know if Apple (or anyone else) would use sapphire in a smartphones display.
His salary is only $725,000. With a $1,250,000 bonus. Still, not in tens or hundreds of millions you are implying he makes.
http://insiders.morningstar.com/trading/executive-compensation.action?t=GTAT
Several of my friends who use iPhones and iPads did not know about the upcoming iPhone 6 announcement, just saying. And I'm glad that your grandmother knows much more about technology than some other elders that I know...
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I saw what you did there.. For the Alliance !!!!
Reality now :
Sounds like this guy was doing insider trading..That's a no-no.
The SEC will eat this guy up.
They have been on the war path for over 4 years. This dude is toast IMHO.
They have been on the war path for over 4 years. This dude is toast IMHO.
If he sold his shares after the non use of sapphire became public knowledge how can that possibly be insider trading? The very definition of insider trading is using inside knowledge before it becomes public.
EDIT: misread the dates. OK, yup this is definitely insider trading, no question.
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He's only guilty of being caught red handed.
I imagine this is similar to baseball players getting caught juicing. Everyone does it yet only the guilty get caught.
I imagine this is similar to baseball players getting caught juicing. Everyone does it yet only the guilty get caught.
He should have known well before days of the announcement. It doesn't take much to know the iphone comes out in September and that ramping up in production starts in July/August. He could have done that the minute rumor showed that his product wasn't being used. Not saying its right but why days ahead? He putting himself on a platter.
No, no, he can not. The definition of insider trading is trading on not-publicly-held knowledge. CEOs and similar by-definition insiders need to have their stocks managed by independent trustees for exactly this reason. Having a "plan" is very thin cover, especially one which was put in place less than a year ago.
Edit: I misread. The "plan" in the article is an official filing to the SEC detailing the trade in March, so is unlikely to cause insider trading scrutiny (it is still possible, just not likely).
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As a former GTAT stock holder, once iPhone 6 was released without sapphire, I went to my brokerage account and reviewed the insider trades. These CEO trades are public and easy to see using any reputable brokerage firm.
The stock fell to $12 and I sold all my holdings for a slight loss, mainly due to likely poor yeild of screens (info covered here) & no profit in the foreseeable future (logic).
Had the CEO NOT been selling all year long, I might have held on until next iPhone, but alas - why would the CEO keep selling for any other reason if iWatch was going to make them profitable?? He knew it would be years or never..
That's the risk of any stock and hype of the market.
Just have to be smart & pay attention....
The stock fell to $12 and I sold all my holdings for a slight loss, mainly due to likely poor yeild of screens (info covered here) & no profit in the foreseeable future (logic).
Had the CEO NOT been selling all year long, I might have held on until next iPhone, but alas - why would the CEO keep selling for any other reason if iWatch was going to make them profitable?? He knew it would be years or never..
That's the risk of any stock and hype of the market.
Just have to be smart & pay attention....
The "Average Joe" knows that the SEC is watching, especially since insider trading was in the media's spotlight for a while. I am sure he did everything by the rules. What we may view as questionable is simply someone who used the rules to their advantage.
This is poorly written article by Juli Clover.
This article implies that CEO did improper tradings.
As "chainprayer" astutely pointed out, this trading could be (and likely) from prescheduled 10b5-1 plan.
Juli Clover SHOULD have looked this up before writing this article. My guess, she did NOT.
This article implies that CEO did improper tradings.
As "chainprayer" astutely pointed out, this trading could be (and likely) from prescheduled 10b5-1 plan.
Juli Clover SHOULD have looked this up before writing this article. My guess, she did NOT.