Weekly CEO Sells Highlight: Staples Inc., Transcend Services Inc., Targacept Inc., Crown Holdings Inc.

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Dec 26, 2009
According to GuruFocus Insider Data, these are the largest CEO sales during the past week: Staples Inc., Transcend Services Inc., Targacept Inc., Crown Holdings Inc.

Staples Inc. (SPLS, Financial): Chairman and CEO Ronald Sargent sold 389,375 Shares

Chairman and CEO of Staples Inc. (SPLS) Ronald Sargent sold 389,375 shares on 12/21/2009 at an average price of $24.4. Staples.com provides an electronic marketplace where small, mid-sized and large businesses can procure office products and business services and obtain business information and expert content. Staples Inc. has a market cap of $18.02 billion; its shares were traded at around $24.94 with a P/E ratio of 22.2 and P/S ratio of 0.8. The dividend yield of Staples Inc. stocks is 0.3%. Staples Inc. had an annual average earning growth of 15.6% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Staples Inc. the business predictability rank of 5-star.

Staples, Inc. announced on December 8, 2009 that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on Staples, Inc. common stock of $0.0825 per share. The dividend is payable on January 14, 2010, to shareholders of record on December 23, 2009.


SPLS is in the portfolios of Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital, David Dreman of Dreman Value Management, John Hussman of Hussman Economtrics Advisors, Inc., Eric Mindich of Eton Park Capital Management, L.P., Tom Russo of Gardner Russo & Gardner, Chris Davis of Davis Selected Advisers, Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Capital Management, LLC, Arnold Van Den Berg of Century Management, Jeremy Grantham of GMO LLC, George Soros of Soros Fund Management LLC.

  • Chairman and CEO
Ronald Sargent sold 469,375 shares of SPLS stock in December, October, and September.

  • President, US Stores Demos Parneros, President NA Delivery Joseph Doody, Vice Chairman John Mahoney, and directors Robert Nakasone and Arthur Blank together sold 608,090 shares of SPLS stock in December.



Transcend Services Inc. (TRCR, Financial): CEO Larry G. Gerdes sold 316,250 Shares

CEO of Transcend Services Inc. (TRCR) Larry G. Gerdes sold 316,250 shares on 12/22/2009 at an average price of $16.75. Transcend Services, Inc. believes that accurate, reliable and timely transcription creates the foundation for the patient medical record. To this end, the company has created Internet-based, speech-recognition enabled, voice-to-text systems that allow its skilled medical language specialists to securely and quickly produce the highest quality medical documents. Transcend Services Inc. has a market cap of $174.2 million; its shares were traded at around $19.95 with a P/E ratio of 26.3 and P/S ratio of 3.6.

TRANSCEND SERVICES, INC. (on December 23, 2009) announced the December 22, 2009 closing of the public offering of a total of 2,553,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $16.75 per share.

  • CEO
Larry G. Gerdes sold 316,250 shares of TRCR stock on 12/22/2009 at the average price of 16.75, the price of the stock has increased by 19.1% since.

  • Directors Joseph P. Clayton, Charles E. Thoele , Walter S. Huff Jr. and Joseph G. Bleser and President/COO Susan Mcgrogan together sold 511,750 shares of TRCR stock on 12/22/2009 12/22/2009 at the average price of 16.75, the price of the stock has increased by 19.1% since.

Targacept Inc. (TRGT, Financial): President and CEO J. Donald Debethizy sold 237,930 Shares

President and CEO of Targacept Inc. (TRGT) J. Donald Debethizy sold 237,930 shares on 12/16/2009 at an average price of $21.98. TARGACEPT INC is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops NNR Therapeutics, a new class of drugs for the treatment of central nervous system diseases and disorders. Targacept also has a cognition-focused collaboration with AstraZeneca and a strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline. Targacept Inc. has a market cap of $612.4 million; its shares were traded at around $22.11 with and P/S ratio of 30.4.

On December 10,2009, Targacept, Inc. announced that it has initiated a Phase 2 clinical proof of concept trial of TC-5619 in cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.

  • President and CEO
J. Donald Debethizy sold 280,321 shares of TRGT stock in August, September and December.



  • VP, CFO & Treasurer
Alan A. Musso sold 66,532 shares of TRGT stock in August, September, and December.

  • 10% Owner Partners L P/il Bvf bought 25,700 shares of TRGT stock on 07/13/2009 at the average price of 3.06, the price of the stock has increased by 622.55% since.



  • VP, Preclinical Research Merouane Bencherif, VP - Drug Discovery and Dev. William S. Caldwell, VP, Clin. Dev. & Reg. Affairs Geoffrey C. Dunbar, and VP, Preclinical Research Merouane Bencherif together sold 82,326 shares of TRGT stock in December.

Crown Holdings Inc. (CCK, Financial): Chairman, President and CEO John W. Conway sold 229,500 Shares

Chairman, President and CEO of Crown Holdings Inc. (CCK) John W. Conway sold 229,500 shares on 12/21/2009 at an average price of $25.33. Crown Cork & Seal is a supplier of packaging products to consumer marketing companies around the world. Crown Holdings Inc. has a market cap of $4.11 billion; its shares were traded at around $25.55 with a P/E ratio of 13 and P/S ratio of 0.5.

On November 30,2009, Crown Holdings Inc. announced that Crown Americas LLC and Crown Americas Capital Corp., each a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company have notified the holders of the Issuers’ 7 5/8% Senior Notes due 2013 that they will redeem $300 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes outstanding on December 30, 2009.

CCK is in the portfolios of Jean-Marie Eveillard of Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder Advisers, LLC, Ron Baron of Baron Funds, George Soros of Soros Fund Management LLC, Jeremy Grantham of GMO LLC.



  • Chairman, President and CEO
John W. Conway sold 879,804 shares of CCK stock in December and August.

  • Exec. VP & CFO
Timothy J. Donahue sold 60,000 shares of CCK stock on 12/21/2009 at the average price of 25.35, the price of the stock has increased by 0.79% since.



  • Directors
Alan W. Rutherford and Jenne K. Britell, Sr. VP & Corporate Controller Thomas A. Kelly, and President-Asia Pacific Div. Jozef Salaerts together sold 458,600 shares of CCK stock on 11/02/2009, 09/16/2009, 08/12/2009, and 07/28/2009.



For the complete list of stocks that bought by their CEOs, go to: Insider Buys.