After the line from the ’80s movie “Wall Street”-“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good”-insider trading got a bad rap. In that movie, Charlie Sheen’s character was arrested for making money off insider information. However, there are actually two kinds of insider trades: legal and illegal.
Outside Hollywood, insider trading is usually a perfectly legal activity. It’s when corporate insiders-officers, directors and employees-buy and sell stock in their own companies. Corporate executives are often rewarded with company stock, and when they sell those securities, they must report it to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many times such transactions are scheduled beforehand in order to prevent the appearance of illegal activity.
Illegal insider trading is when someone buys or sells shares when he or she is in possession of “material, nonpublic” information about a particular company. Such trades can involve company executives, friends, family members and even government employees who learned of insider information because of their job. TV personality Martha Stewart recently finished a jail term because of illegal insider trading.
Indeed, the fourth estate isn’t exempt from insider trading laws. In the 1980s, the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal for a Wall Street Journal columnist to tip stockbrokers of potentially influential columns before they were printed. The columnist shared in the profits from the insider stock sales.
Here is a collection of insider trading information on various wireless companies. The information, provided by Computershare, collects metrics on insider transactions during the past six months. Please note: This is not a complete list nor is it intended to single out any particular company or industry.
Alamosa Holdings Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 3,243,440
Total Insider Shares Held: 20.96M
% Net Shares Sold: 13.4%
Alltel Corp.
Net Shares Sold: 210,315
Total Insider Shares Held: 17.15M
% Net Shares Sold: 1.2%
Leap Wireless International Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 36,005
Total Insider Shares Held: 17.61M
% Net Shares Sold: 0.2%
Rural Cellular Corp.
Net Shares Sold: 20,000
Total Insider Shares Held: 3.47M
% Net Shares Sold: 0.6%
Verizon Communications Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 27,860
Total Insider Shares Held: 2.46M
Net Shares Sold: 1.1%
American Tower Corp.
Net Shares Sold: 175,000
Total Insider Shares Held: 3.34M
% Net Shares Sold: 5%
Boston Communications Group
Net Shares Purchased: 402,270
Total Insider Shares Held: 403.17K
% Net Shares Purchased: 44,974.2%
Brightpoint Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 190,554
Total Insider Shares Held: 1.48M
% Net Shares Sold: 11.4%
Crown Castle International Corp.
Net Shares Sold: 48,870
Total Insider Shares Held: 45.66M
% Net Shares Sold: 0.1%
InterDigital Communications Corp.
Net Shares Purchased (Sold): N/A
Total Insider Shares Held: 1.21M
% Net Shares Purchased (Sold): 0%
Jamdat Mobile Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 453,809
Total Insider Shares Held: 8.67M
% Net Shares Sold: 5%
Lucent Technologies Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 125,937
Total Insider Shares Held: 6.53M
% Net Shares Sold: 1.9%
Motorola Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 1,906,600
Total Insider Shares Held: 3.11M
% Net Shares Sold: 37.9%
Nortel Networks Ltd.
Net Shares Purchased (Sold): N/A
Total Insider Shares Held: 8.28M
% Net Shares Purchased (Sold): 0%
PalmSource Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 2,455
Total Insider Shares Held: 1.63M
% Net Shares Sold: 0.2%
Qualcomm Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 3,104,630
Total Insider Shares Held: 35.98M
% Net Shares Sold: 7.9%
VeriSign Inc.
Net Shares Sold: 446,813
Total Insider Shares Held: 18.31M
% Net Shares Sold: 2.4%
