Statistics and numbers. Numbers and statistics. No matter how you type it, everyone knows you can manipulate virtually any number or statistic to say whatever it is you want it to say. Numbers are not to be trusted (don't even get me started on 2,587). As for statistics, did you know that 24% of all statistics are false? If you didn't, you should now since I just made that up.
I say all that with the intention of showing you a chart I stumbled upon in the 2009 SEC filing that shows the amount of stock bought by employees in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (page 70). Now, I don't know if much can really be read into the chart but it is interesting to me. And since this is my blog and no one reads this stuff anyways, it doesn't really matter if I post it. So here it goes...
Obviously, Sprint's stock took a worse beating than Rihanna this past year. I think the depth and breadth of the beating surprised everyone. In fact, I can't believe she took Chris Brown back! But, back to Sprint's stock; it makes sense to buy stock if you believe if it is going to go up in price. In no other situation (other than covering a short sale), would you buy stock that you thought would depreciate unless - and this is a huge caveat - you are f*cking retarded. But, I assume the best in people so I doubt this is the case. So, what did non-executive employees buy via the ESPP? And what did executives buy via the ESPP? Let's go to the scorecard:
All executive officers (8 people) - 2,672 shares
All employees (excluding officers) - 8,676,427 shares
Now here it is in monetary terms at a weighted price of $4.16 per share (as listed in the proxy):
All executive officers (8 people) - $ 15,943
All employees (excluding officers) - $ 36,109,316
To help you comprehend the difference, that's about my yearly salary versus 77 minutes of losses by AIG in the 4th qtr. You can guess which value is which.
Now, obviously, the number of employees (excluding officers) greatly exceeds the top 8 people in the company. And the top officers in the company are already tied heavily in stock as part of their compensation mainly through stock options and grants/awards. But, none of the top 5 current executives (Hesse, Brust, Cowan, Elfman, Johnson) nor any of the top 4 ex-executives (Saleh, Arendt, Kennedy, Angelino) purchased stock via the ESPP. If they thought the stock price would go up in 2008, would they have bought stock? Is the fact that they didn't indicative that they believed the stock would go down? Why is there such a discrepancy in the "bullishness" of the stock between executives and non-executives? I, like usual, don't have any idea.
So I'll leave it up to you, my dear astute readers, to answer those questions for yourself. By the way, here's the actual chart:
Posted by
Sprint Filings
on
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Labels:
2009 proxy,
espp
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2 comments:
um, they get thousands of options at a discount to the stock price...why would they buy on top of that? Would you?
Like I said in the beginning of my post, I wouldn't (and don't) read too much into it. I just found it interesting that employees seemed to be quite bullish on Sprint in 2008. Normally, to me, that is a good sign although it clearly didn't work out that way.
And, for the record, no I wouldn't buy on top of tons of options (and grants) unless I truly thought the stock had bottomed and it was "easy" money.
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