Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) co-founder and vice chairman Marius Nacht has applied to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell five million shares in the company. On the basis of Check Point's closing price last Friday of $27.98, when the application was filed, the block of shares is worth $139.9 million.
"Globes" monitoring of sales by Check Point's parties at interest show that this is the largest sale by Nacht since the company went public more than a decade ago. In the past three years alone, he has sold shares to the tune of $403.1 million, more than any other private shareholder in the company.
Nacht has never bought Check Point shares, and it is possible that the current planned sale is intended to finance part of the supplement needed to exercise his options. He is seeking to sell the shares at a peak price: the share closed at $27.86 yesterday and rose 0.5% at the opening today to $28, giving a market cap of $5.84 billion. The share has risen 47% since the beginning of the year, outperforming Nasdaq's 25% gain. The share has risen 9% over the past 12 months, compared with Nasdaq's negative yield of 17.6%.
According to Check Point's full-year financial report for 2008, Nacht owns 9.6% of the company. Check Point chairman and CEO Gil Shwed owns 11.6%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 20, 2009
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009