Tuesday, January 6

Tom Ward Joins the Parade

The Thundercats' ownership apparently shares the same broker, as Tom Ward has joined Aubrey McClendon in off-loading a boatload of shares of his company's stocks.

From the Associated Press:

"Tom Ward, the chief executive officer of SandRidge Energy Inc., has sold 8.9 million shares of his common stock in the company to Tulsa businessman George B. Kaiser. ... Kaiser bought the 8.9 million shares for $50 million, or $5.62 per share."

How bad of a deal was that for Mr. Ward? Well, consider this additional piece of information, from June 2008:

"President and CEO Tom Ward purchased 460,000 shares at $48.95 on May 19th/20th, which increased his already substantial holdings to nearly 36.95 million shares, or a 25.27% stake. ... His only other open-market purchase came in November 2007, when he took down 4.17 million shares at $26.00 in the company's initial public offering."

Let's look at those two purchases and sales:

1. 460,000 shares @ $48.95 a pop: $22.5 million
2. 4.17 million shares @ $26.00 a pop: $108.4 million
Total value: $130.9 million

And, after the sale yesterday:

1. 460,000 shares @ $5.62 a pop: $2.6 million
2. 4.17 million shares @ $5.62 a pop: $23.4 million
Total return: $26 million

I'm no math wizard, but that's a $104.9 million loss Tom Ward just took yesterday, not to mention the fact he just gave up a heckuva lot of control in his own company.

Geez, I can't imagine why Ward would be needing a wack of cash ....

posted by PN @ 10:08 AM   3 comments

3 Comments:

I'm no "math wizard" either, but doesn't that leave Tom Ward another 28.05 million shares? Wouldn't he still turn a profit as long as he sells them above the original buying price? This would offset his loss and probably turn a nice profit depending on the stock value. eh?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1/06/2009 11:19 AM  

Yes, you could look at it from the standpoint he was selling the shares he had previous to his last two purchases, and that those two purchases are still sitting in reserve, but that doesn't make for as good of a story, now does it? No matter how you slice it, Ward wouldn't be selling the shares unless he desperately needed the money. The fact his share in the company was just chopped down by a huge amount is the big part of the story, just as it was when McClendon started having a fire sale last fall. SandRidge's stock has been wallowing in the single digits for awhile now, and who knows when energy stocks will begin to take off. Considering how overleveraged McClendon was, is it that much of a guess to expect Ward to be in the same situation? It will be interesting to see how long before we see another sale of his shares ...

By Anonymous nuss, at 1/06/2009 11:59 AM  

No, it's really not that interesting.

By Anonymous anonymous #12, at 1/06/2009 2:15 PM  

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