After Oppenheimer, Two Apple Inc. (AAPL) Board Members Sell Shares

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Millard Drexler and William Campbell, both members of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s board of directors sold their stock in the company, worth more than $19 million this week, revealed by a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

After Oppenheimer, Two Apple Inc. (AAPL) Board Members Sell Shares

Details of the shares sold

Drexler sold more shares than Campbell, earning more than $14.6 million after trading a total of 32,562 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock, which were priced between $448 and $449 (weighted average sale price). According to the SEC filing, transactions were done in multiple trades.

Campbell, who is the current chairman of Intuits, has dropped 10,000 shares in two separate parts for a total of $4.4 million. The sell off took place at an average weighted price ranging from $440 to $441.

Oppenheimer sold shares after the earnings

Peter Oppenheimer, who is the financial officer, sold stocks worth $16.4 million. Oppenheimer sold his Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock just in the right time when the stock price surged about $20 after it announced its earnings. The sales were made according to the rules of SEC, SEC 10b5-1. This rule implies that SEC should have the knowledge of any executive who are looking forward to sell off their stock in order to avoid insider trading issues.

Oppenheimer is still in possession of 4,834 shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which at the current price are around $2.1 million.

According to MacRumors, Oppenheimer officially got the shares last month as a part of the bonus award given to him, in 2011. It was also mentioned that Oppenheimer has to acquire Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock holding thrice his annual base salary of $800,000.

Is it good or bad for Apple?

According to some analysts, employees and board members selling their stocks can be a reason for concern, but it is a common trend in the company to sell shares when options vest, or when employees simply wish to reap the profit early. Apple shares are performing well after the recent earning reports, announced last week.  The iPhone maker saw declining quarter over quarter profit, but iPhone sales were ahead of the analyst expectations.

Fund Manager David Einhorn, however, is confident about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares even though he said that Apple was their largest loser this quarter.

A new performance-based executive stock award was initiated by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) last month, under the supervision of CEO Tim Cook and other executives. However, as mentioned in the SEC filing, some alterations were made by Apple’s compensation committee after “outreach discussions this year with many of our largest shareholders.”

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