Options Pay Off for Rockwell Executives
Rockwell International Corp. Chairman Don Davis Jr. and other executives at the No. 1 U.S. maker of factory-automation equipment sold shares last month just as the stock reached a record high.
The executives cleared $10.7 million from the sales, according to the Washington Service, which tracks sales and purchases by company officers. The sales were the largest ever by company officials.
Davis netted at least $2.59 million after subtracting the cost of acquiring the stock by exercising options. Retired Chairman Donald Beall reaped $6.86 million.
Rockwell’s stock has rallied 47% in the past year amid investor belief that a worldwide pickup in manufacturing will boost sales of factory-automation equipment.
The stock also got a brief lift after AlliedSignal Inc. said June 7 that it agreed to buy Honeywell Inc., which generated speculation that Rockwell might become a takeover target.
“Rockwell’s competitive landscape has changed a great deal since these (stock transactions) were made,” said Richard Turgeon, an analyst with Cleveland’s Society Asset Management Inc.
As of March, Society Asset owned 343,920 Rockwell shares, 2.15 million AlliedSignal shares and 53,500 Honeywell shares.
The sales by Davis and Beall are the largest by each executive since the current Costa Mesa-based Rockwell was formed in 1996, said Nancy Fedorowicz, a research analyst.
Rockwell shares, which traded at a record high of $63.56 on May 17, rose 63 cents Wednesday to close at $60.31.
Some executives sold shares to finance new homes in the Milwaukee area, said Terry Francisco, a company spokesman.
The company’s executives acquired their shares by exercising options.
Among the other executives selling shares were:
* Beall, who bought 189,547 shares at $16.78 a share on May 3 and sold them the same day at $53, making $6.86 million.
* Wolfgang Richter, who left Rockwell last month as chief information officer. He purchased 11,809 shares at $27.31 and $40.79 on May 10. He sold the same day for $58.38 and $58.51 a share, or about $314,000.
* Oguz Caglarcan, head of Rockwell’s electronic commerce business. He acquired 5,000 shares at $27.31 a share on May 5 and sold them the same day at $54.06 each, clearing about $134,000.
* Keith Nosbusch, president of Rockwell’s automation unit, who bought 10,392 shares at $27.31 on May 12 and sold them the same day at $60.14 a share, or about $341,000.
* John Stocker, vice president of law, who purchased 15,186 shares at $15.33 a share and sold 11,511 of those shares the same day at $62.50 and $62.88, netting about $487,000. Stocker is moving to Milwaukee from Costa Mesa.
