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Shares of Manhattan Beach-based Skechers have been soaring, partly because the overall market is soaring and partly because of the company's super-popular Shape-ups shoe. So what better time for president and co-founder Michael Greenberg to sell some of his shares? Barron's reports that he's unloading 147,493 class A shares on March 23 for $5.2 million. COO David Weinberg sold 75,000 class A shares on March 23 for $2.6 million. Greenberg's family controls the company through Class B shares.
The company's net sales jumped 30% between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the fourth quarter of 2009, and its same-store sales rose 17.4%. Christopher Svezia, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group who rates the stock at Positive, says he expects sales of the toning shoes to quadruple this year over last year. Svezia says the insider sales don't worry him, because top insiders at the firm continue to hold such a large stake in the company. Also, given the stock's huge run-up, it does not seem unusual to want to take some money off the table, he says.
Skechers stock is down this morning.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.