August was a good month for eBay's (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman. She sold 1.28 million shares at an average of $34.80 for total proceeds of $44.5 million ($32 million profit after the options exercise cost). And yes, that was all in August! That still leaves her with a whopping 26 million shares but still, selling nearly 5% of her shares a few short months before the all-important Q4 quarter is not a great signal.
I know from the investor's point of view, it is never a good time for insider's to sell shares. But in the case of eBay, I would have hoped Whitman waited until the long-promised recovery in US and German listings started to show progress. Selling in the current climate, frankly, does not inspire much confidence in eBay's ability to reaccelerate growth.
