Bezos’ Feb Amazon stock sale earned $3.4 billion, not $1.8 billion
In early February Jeff Bezos sold of 3% of his Amazon stock, almost twice what had been reported at the time, earning him $3.4 billion not $1.8 billion.
This information is part of an overall sell-off in early February by the top executives of many U.S. companies, totaling $9.2 billion.
While Mr. Bezos’s sales accounted for more than a third of the 2020 sales, thousands of other insiders sold stock. More than 150 executives and officers individually sold at least $1 million worth of stock in February and March after having sold no stock in the previous 12 months, the Journal analysis found.
Wall Street executives also sold large dollar amounts, including Laurence Fink, CEO of BlackRock Inc., who sold $25 million of his company shares on Feb. 14, pre-empting potential losses of more than $9.3 million and Lance Uggla, CEO of IHS Markit Ltd., a data and analytics firm, who sold $47 million of his shares around Feb. 19. Those shares would have dropped in value by $19.2 million if Mr. Uggla had retained them. A spokesperson said the shares were sold under a preset plan.
These early February sell offs are in addition to the sudden sales of stock by four Senators, all conveniently timed to beat the crash that has since occurred.
If I was a cynic I would say they got inside information from their buddies in Congress and the state governments, telling them that the government was going to shut down the economy because of COVID-19, and you better sell.
If I was a fool I’d say that can’t be, these people are all upfront and honest, especially those in Congress. They would never work with the big stockholders on Wall Street to manipulate stocks so those stockholders could make a killing. Never!
Meanwhile, Bezos’ stock sale now gives him a total of $8.2 billion in cash from all his stock sales since 2017. While he has said this money was intended to support his space company Blue Origin, he has also said he wants to spend $10 billion on “climate change.”
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In early February Jeff Bezos sold of 3% of his Amazon stock, almost twice what had been reported at the time, earning him $3.4 billion not $1.8 billion.
This information is part of an overall sell-off in early February by the top executives of many U.S. companies, totaling $9.2 billion.
While Mr. Bezos’s sales accounted for more than a third of the 2020 sales, thousands of other insiders sold stock. More than 150 executives and officers individually sold at least $1 million worth of stock in February and March after having sold no stock in the previous 12 months, the Journal analysis found.
Wall Street executives also sold large dollar amounts, including Laurence Fink, CEO of BlackRock Inc., who sold $25 million of his company shares on Feb. 14, pre-empting potential losses of more than $9.3 million and Lance Uggla, CEO of IHS Markit Ltd., a data and analytics firm, who sold $47 million of his shares around Feb. 19. Those shares would have dropped in value by $19.2 million if Mr. Uggla had retained them. A spokesperson said the shares were sold under a preset plan.
These early February sell offs are in addition to the sudden sales of stock by four Senators, all conveniently timed to beat the crash that has since occurred.
If I was a cynic I would say they got inside information from their buddies in Congress and the state governments, telling them that the government was going to shut down the economy because of COVID-19, and you better sell.
If I was a fool I’d say that can’t be, these people are all upfront and honest, especially those in Congress. They would never work with the big stockholders on Wall Street to manipulate stocks so those stockholders could make a killing. Never!
Meanwhile, Bezos’ stock sale now gives him a total of $8.2 billion in cash from all his stock sales since 2017. While he has said this money was intended to support his space company Blue Origin, he has also said he wants to spend $10 billion on “climate change.”
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I’ll go ahead and quote the inimitable Claude Rains in ‘Casablanca’.
“I’m shocked, SHOCKED to find out that GAMBLING has been going on in here!”
I very much doubt Bezos’s sale came due to any insider information, the biggest home delivery company the world has ever known stands to do very well indeed from the current crisis.
Polititions on the other hand……
Whether you were a cynic or a fool might depend on whether you live in a two dimensional or three dimensional reality.
You can not detect and understand what it is you can not see or refuse to recognize.
It is also just possible that this was coincidental. There are a lot of people who sold stock who did have insider info. Not sure what can be done about such things.
When China locked down Wuhan in late January all in the free world had adequate information to see that the crisis could, and likely would, escalate into an international crisis. You can’t expect that a lock down of a city/province of some 40M could occur with no PREsidual and residual spread of the virus given today’s global connectivity. Especially those with intimate ties to international trade and commerce who would recognize just how much daily travel out of China across the globe occurs, and could and would consult with experts to model just how bad the effects could be.
This is why Trump, bless the man, decided to ban travel from China less than a week later, an act that saved America more than most know. Too bad Europe fell victim to wokeness, instead of science, because they have suffered greatly for that mistake.
But the information that counted was largely public and it is not at all surprising that many in the investment class took some action to hedge against the case we are experiencing.
That does not excuse our political leaders if they took action based on data they had but did not share, but if they acted through professional economic advice/management (ie managed Trusts, or at least guidance from a long term paid financial advisor independent of the government), then they were just being responsible investors.
My 401K was skewed to a near max conservative posture already as I’m nearing retirement. But had it not been I believe I would have made that adjustment in early February too.
Corporate insiders can only sell a few times per year, called “windows”, after public disclosures are out. Amazon released its 10k on January 31, so this would be such a window. Most companies are on similar schedules.
“Corporate insiders can only sell a few times per year, called “windows”, after public disclosures are out. Amazon released its 10k on January 31, so this would be such a window. Most companies are on similar schedules.” — Bruce
This is key. The sales by political folks may be sketchy (due to horrible reporting I can’t tell one way or the other), but for CEOs and senior company officers this is one of their few annual opportunities to do a big sale. If they want to diversify their wealth or just get funding for a really big purchase (I hear there are deals to be had on Boeing jets right now), after their quarterly financial report is released is when that can happen.
he should build electric delivery trucks using the tesla 3 base