Meade’s Top Officers Will Sell Off Shares

Meade Instruments Corp. said that its top two executives will began selling off their stock in the publicly traded company in a series of quarterly transactions beginning next month.

John C. Diebel, chairman of the board and chief executive of the Irvine-based Meade, which makes telescopes, intends to sell 25,000 shares each quarter, and Steven G. Murdock, president and chief operating officer, plans to sell 15,000 shares per quarter.

Meade’s stock hit an all-time high of $17.13 this month and gained 81 cents a share to close at $16.13 in moderate Nasdaq trading Monday after the divestiture plan was announced. The company, founded in 1972, went public in April 1997, at $7 a share.

Diebel now owns 1.3 million shares, or 16.6% of Meade’s outstanding common stock, and Murdock owns 799,999 shares, a 10.1% stake.

The two officers did not say when, or if, they would stop selling.

The sales would represent divestiture of approximately 0.5% of the company’s common shares each quarter.

Meade is a major designer and manufacturer of telescopes and accessories for amateur astronomers. The company also offers a line of binoculars. Its products are sold worldwide through a network of specialty retailers, mass merchandisers and foreign distributors.