Insider trades
TWO “sell” orders were among the disclosures posted recently on the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The sellers were Federico R. Lopez, treasurer of Lopez Holdings Corp. (LPZ), and Jose Marcel E. Panlilio, chairman, president and chief executive of
On Oct. 20, Lopez sold 183,800 LPZ common shares at P5.86 each; 10,000 LPZ common shares on Oct. 23 at P6.40 each; and 37,000 LPZ common shares at P6.06 each. On Oct. 24, he sold 63,000 LPZ common shares at P6.067 each.
The sale of 383,800 LPZ common shares reduced Lopez’s direct ownership in Lopez Holdings to 1,319,057 common shares, but grossed him P2.324 million (rounded off).
As an insider, Lopez also indirectly owns 2,000 LPZ common shares.
On Oct. 27, LPZ common shares closed trading at P5.70.
Over at Boulevard Holdings Inc. (BHI), Panlilio, who is chairman, president and common shares at P0.071 each on Oct.23. The sale grossed him P1.416 million. On Oct. 27, BHI closed trading at P0.069. On Oct. 17, Panlilio also sold 2.92 million BHI common shares at P0.071 and still directly
owned 3.502 million BHI common shares. The stock ended the session at P0.070.
As an indirect stockholder of Boulevard Holdings, Panlilio holds 5.209 billion BHI common shares, or 43.405 percent.
Acquisitions
Three senior executives of Bloomberry Resorts Corp. (BLOOM) were among the buyers of BLOOM common shares also in October. They were Christian Razon Gonzalez, a member of the seven-person board; Thomas Arasi, and Laurence Upton, senior vice president for marketing.
Following are some details of the acquisitions by the three Bloomberry insiders: Gonzalez bought from a low of P9.28 per share to a high of P9.83 per share on Oct. 26 in 24 transactions. His newly bought BLOOM stock totaled 5.629 million shares, or 0.562 percent of the company’s 11.002 bil- lion outstanding common shares.
Arasi’s “buy” trades included 747,666 BLOOM common shares at P9.32 each on Oct. 27. The acquisition increased his BLOOM holdings to 5.218 million common shares, or 0.521 percent.
Upton bought 190,205 BLOOM common shares on Oct. 23, increasing the number of BLOOM common shares he directly owned to 409,009.
website concerning insiders’ trades. Due Diligencer, however, cited only a few of them to illustrate the big advantage enjoyed by executives over the public.
Due Diligencer’s take
Should public investors do what some insiders have done with their holdings in their own companies? Should they also sell when some senior executives sell and buy when these insiders buy?
As public investors, they know nothing about what directors either think or plan to take up inside the boardrooms. They would be lucky if someone from within could tell them about certain information that could potentially affect the price of a listed stock.
Unfortunately for the public, they should be warned against the use of undisclosed information for trading purposes. They could be penalized in accordance with the law should they be caught doing illegal trade by regulatory authorities.
Don’t ask if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the PSE is watching the stock market. The public should just be reminded that they could be caught when they engage in illicit trading.
While insiders enjoy a big advantage over the public when it comes to knowing when to sell and when to buy, they, too, are prohibited from using non-public information.
However, no one knows if the market watchers of both the SEC and PSE are strictly monitoring every single “buy” or “sell” trade. This would mean monitoring each transaction in the 300 or so listed stocks.
As regulators, do the SEC and PSE have the capability to watch every trade of ALL stockbrokers who are mainly responsible for the “meeting of minds” between the buyers and the sellers? Just asking.