David O’Reilly, chairman of O’Reilly Automotive, and his brother Lawrence O’Reilly, a director, sold $8 million in shares at $40 each, the Wall Street Journal reported. The brothers planned the sales in May “but didn’t execute them until … the stock crossed the $40 threshold,” the article said. “Using trading plans, an insider can avoid the appearance of illegal insider trading by mapping out stock transactions according to a set of instructions formulated in advance.” In May, the O’Reillys reported they would sell shares to diversify their holdings, the article said. An analyst told the Journal that the O’Reillys were expected to diversify. “Typically, we see executives overinvested in their company’s stock,” the analyst said. Shares of auto-parts retailers have risen owing to the theory that in a downturn customers tend to repair their old cars rather than buy new ones, the Journal noted. (Source: Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2009.)
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