Update: By request, here is a graph of today’s stock performance for a handful of other locally-based companies.
For those of you keeping score at home:
- Boeing: -1.95%
- Microsoft: -4.12%
- Amazon: -5.00%
- Starbucks: -3.94%
- Nordstrom: -7.59%
- Costco: -3.48%
- Washington Mutual: -2.25%
Some immunity.
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30 responses so far ↓
1
Kaleetan
// Feb 27, 2007 at 4:44 pm
What a silly business model…these companies actually think people will buy computers and fly in the future.
2
MisterBubble
// Feb 27, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Correction: they think that people will buy these things from them.
Both assumptions are dubious.
3
Ouch!
// Feb 27, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I mentioned to my husband last week that our hometown hero, Mr. Gates, had sold a lot of MSFT lately. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=MSFT
What luck that he sold before the big crash, I mean, correction.
4
Eleua
// Feb 27, 2007 at 5:10 pm
If China is up in a big way over the past year, there is still quite a bit of potential energy in their market. This could get interesting.
5
The Tim
// Feb 27, 2007 at 5:22 pm
RE: Gates selling MSFT
Holy crap!
He’s sold 15 million shares, for a total cash-out of over $4.375 billion, all in just the last three weeks?
I’m no financial analyst, but that sure doesn’t seem like the actions of a man with a strong confidence in the future performance of the company.
6
Eleua
// Feb 27, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Vista is a bomb and everyone except the entire memory manufacturing food chain knows it.
In three weeks, we won’t be talking about today’s action. There is a lot of excitement dead ahead.
Stay strong. Stay short. Stay solvent.
7
Bubble
// Feb 27, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Tim,
Can you double-check your figure of $4.375 billion? According to my calculation, from 6-Feb-07 to 22-Feb-07, he sold a total of $437,556,000. It seems that your sum is off by one digit, even though your total number of shares is correct. 15 million shares x (approx $29 / share) = $435,000,000.
514,000
28,878,000
8,661,000
49,606,000
570,000
56,786,000
28,800,000
258,000
58,711,000
7,135,000
22,330,000
10,000,000
19,047,000
28,955,000
8,365,000
20,761,000
29,300,000
9,151,000
20,323,000
29,405,000
———–
437,556,000
8
Pegasus
// Feb 27, 2007 at 6:38 pm
He who panics first panics best.
An old Wall Street adage that may soon apply to the real estate market.
I am told the credit crunch is starting to spread beyond the 30 percent hit that the subprime market took in the last three months. Spreading now to mortgages above subprime. If that continues and the “predicted” recession arrives shortly, there will be blood in the streets beyond the stock market. There is nothing better to expose the frauds than a declining real estate market.
Timber!!!!!!!!
9
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Gates also sold $531,159,000.00 worth of stock in the first half of November. I wouldn’t read “too much” into him selling off a big chunk of stock. Wish I had that problem.
10
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 6:47 pm
P.S - that’s from the same link that The Tim had provided
11
The Tim
// Feb 27, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Bubble,
You’re right. I copied it into Excel, and the superscript ‘2′ was tacked onto the end of every dollar amount. Whoops.
Still, $437 million? Why?
12
Richard
// Feb 27, 2007 at 8:32 pm
When Microsoft announced their big stock repurchase plans last year I had to wonder if it was at least partially motivated by a desire to allow certain employees and shareholders a cash out opportunity.
Cash is really the only thing MSFT has going for it these days. Innovative products that increase revenues and market share are in short supply. The only “hit” they’ve had lately is the X-Box & 360- and while that helped market share, it’s not exactly a revenue driver.
Tim - no chart for AMZN? They also took a 5% haircut today.
13
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 8:44 pm
“Why?”
Because he can.
Gates actually looks pretty consistent:
May 2005 - 20 million
July 2005 - 9 million
August 2005 - 12 million
November 2005 - 20 million
February 2006 - 20 million
July/August 2006 - 20 million
November 2006 - 20 million
February 2007 - 15 million
I’m just saying that I wouldn’t read too much into Gates selling shares. He have been doing this routinely despite the economic climate.
14
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 8:46 pm
*have = has
I don’t want to come off as totally illiterate.
15
The Tim
// Feb 27, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Fair enough, but still, if the numbers you just posted are the entirety of his sales since May ‘05, he has sold over three times as many shares (by dollar amount) in just the last three weeks than he did in the entire prior 21 months.
16
T,V & Mr.B
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Hey, I noticed Jubek stated earlier this week that he had heard rumors that Wamu was possibly gonna be bought, by…..by.. "golly" it I forgot who it was….and that is why he isn’t shorting it. I wonder how many jobs will be relocated,lost…oh yeah, it was JP Morgan. Don’t think they will hold onto the home loan division.
17
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:17 pm
May 2005 - $501,695,000
July/August 2005 - $552,697,933
November 2005 - $542,300,000
February 2006 - $539,207,000
July/August 2006 - $484,631,950
November 2006 - $580,944,000
February 2007 - $437,556,000
18
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:18 pm
The guy can’t be more consistent…he only missed selling in May 2006.
19
The Tim
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Ok, fair enough. I still can’t help but wonder why he’s selling that much stock, consistently or not.
20
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Yeah, I don’t know. I guess if you’re worth $40+ billion, this is part of your financial strategy.
21
SourMash
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Ok, fair enough. I still can’t help but wonder why he’s selling that much stock, consistently or not.
diversification?
You’re focusing on the value of the shares. Gates doesn’t care about the fluctuations in the market because he clearly is selling off over time. Like wtf pointed out, if you look at the number of shares, it looks pretty consistent. Dull, drab, consistent diversification.
Not that it matters, really. What Gates does with his money is hardly an economic indicator. It’s one man’s portfolio.
22
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:37 pm
It might be more interesting to look at the other insiders….see if they have a “bump” in their sales recently.
23
T,V & Mr.B
// Feb 27, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Just curious, but how many of you are doing all this on a PC or Mac?
24
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 10:06 pm
For all non-GATES WILLIAM H III insider sales of stock…survey says:
March 2005 - 664,444 - $16,931,000
May/June 2005 - 648,004 - $16,340,624
August/September 2005 - 273,052 - $7,364,853
November 2005 - 2,886,437 - $79,537,781
Jan/Feb/Mar 2006 - 895,674 - $24,165,350
July/August 2006 - 100,000 - $2,425,200
Nov/Dec 2006 - 648,820 - $18,940,283
February 2007 - 0 - $0
I don’t see anything telling in this data, other than a big dump in November of ‘05 - they launched Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006 at that time…did those tank?
25
Alan
// Feb 27, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Maybe Bill is planning to buy a new house in Seattle and needs the extra cash.
Booyah!
26
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 10:07 pm
oh…PC
27
Lake Hills Renter
// Feb 27, 2007 at 10:25 pm
You guys realize MS makes more than operating systems, right? ;)
28
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 10:56 pm
They make Twinkies(r) right?
29
Chris
// Feb 27, 2007 at 11:05 pm
You guys need to realize that Gates’ sales are:
1. Immaterial to the overall market cap of MSFT
2. Immaterial to his net worth, estimated at $80B.
3. He still owns 999,499 MILLION shares (worth $27.8B), so these sales are also immaterial to his total MSFT holdings.
Any inside traders have to file a plan with the SEC in which they declare, in advance, the planned sales of securities in which they are considered to be insiders.
This is very common for large owners of most publicly traded companies. Its in their best interest to diversify their holdings.
For refererence, look at what the Google guys have sold. Their liquidations of shares far surpass Gates’.
I guess we would all like to see high inside owners that never sell, like Buffett, but he’s a rare breed.
30
WTF
// Feb 27, 2007 at 11:10 pm
None of the insiders, including Gates, are exhibiting any Martha Stewart tendencies regarding selling shares…
Be interesting to see what develops in the market in the next few days.
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