A few weeks ago a gentle reader wrote in with some interesting stats about Mozilo really standing behind his firm. I haven't verified the figures but this guy is pretty good at math.
any guesses on a) how much countrywide mozilo sold since june 06 and b) how much he still holds?
according to yahoo finance, he sold ~$350M over that period. he currently holds a whopping $7.5M. that's faith in the company and the industry.
This led to a discussion of whether this might have constituted insider trading or not.
Looks like the SEC has some questions too..
Countrywide's shares have fallen nearly 56 percent since January, and the company may now be facing an investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission into the timing of stock sales made by Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.
North Carolina State Treasurer Richard Moore, in a letter to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, claims that Mozilo "apparently manipulated his trading plans to cash in" as the subprime crisis was heating up.
Moore cited reports that Mozilo was unloading 4.9 million Countrywide shares worth more than $138 million between November 2006 and August 2007.
On Friday, Countrywide announced Mozilo plans to sell more shares under a prearranged trading plan that began Monday and ends Friday.
Regardless it tells you all you need to know about the short-term future of the mortgage space.