M8 BARRON’S October 12, 2020
INSIDE SCOOP
Apple Chief
Operating Officer
Jeff Williams sold
$29 million of
shares of the
iPhone Maker
through planned
transactions on
Oct. 2.
Original Filings
PMV Pharmaceuticals
(PMVP)
OrbiMed Advisors reported its first
interest in the newly public oncol-
ogy-based biopharmaceutical firm.
OrbiMed bought 950,000 shares
through PMV Pharmaceutical’s
initial public offering that closed on
Sept. 29 and priced shares at $18
each. Combined with the PMV
shares that OrbiMed received
through the automatic conversion
of pre-IPO preferred securities,
OrbiMed holds 6,589,330 common
shares, equal to 14.7% of PMV’s
outstanding stock.
Dyne Therapeutics (DYN)
Vida Ventures Advisors reported a
new investment in the biopharma-
ceutical firm of 2,960,046 shares.
Dyne debuted publicly on Sept. 21
through an IPO that priced shares
at $19 each. Vida bought 815,000
Dyne shares through the offering
while the remainder of its stock
holdings were acquired through
the conversion of pre-IPO pre-
ferred securities immediately at
the close of the public offering.
Vida now holds 6.5% of Dyne’s
outstanding stock.
Decreases in
Holdings
Sunrun (RUN)
Tiger Global Management lowered
its stake in the solar-energy firm
through stock sales from Oct. 1
through Oct. 5. Tiger Global sold a
total of 5,023,257 Sunrun shares at
prices ranging from $77.52 to
$80.49 apiece. Tiger Global contin-
ues to own a 19.5% stake in Sunrun,
equal to 24,750,000 shares.
Agile Therapeutics (AGRX)
ProQuest Investments lowered its
stake in the women’s-contraceptive
biopharmaceutical firm to
4,219,900 shares. ProQuest sold
842,463 Agile Therapeutic shares
from Sept. 14 through Sept. 21 at
per-share prices ranging from
$3.69 to $3.81. ProQuest now holds
a 4.8% stake in Agile Therapeutics.
POWER PLAY
Apple COO Jeff Williams
Sells Large Block of Stock
A
n account owned by Apple
Chief Operating Officer
Jeff Williams sold stock
through an automated
plan in early October.
Apple stock has slipped
slightly since splitting
4-for-1 in late August, but still sports a
60% year-to-date gain. This year it
became the first public U.S. firm with
a market capitalization of $2 trillion.
On Oct. 1, 519,080 restricted stock
units vested for Williams. The same
day, he converted the RSUs to an
equivalent number of Apple shares,
held in his living trust.
The next day, he sold 257,343 Ap-
ple shares for $29.2 million, a per-
share average of $113.59. The transac-
tions were conducted through a so-
called Rule 10b5-1 trading plan
adopted in February 2019. Such a
device is used by insiders to remove
any potential bias they may have
from the knowledge of material non-
public information. When the param-
eters, such as timing, price, and vol-
ume, are met, trades are
automatically executed.
Apple withheld 261,737 shares to
satisfy tax-withholding requirements
on the vesting of the RSUs. Williams
now owns 489,260 Apple shares in
his living trust, according to a form he
filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Apple didn’t make Williams, who
leads the company’s design team,
available for comment.
It’s his second sale this year. On
April 2, in another planned transac-
tion, Williams sold 41,062 shares—on
a pre-split basis—for $9.9 million.
In 2019, Williams sold a total of
$26.7 million in Apple stock, through
planned transactions.B
By ED LIN
A Push to
End Disney’s
Dividend
I
nvestors have rightfully wor-
ried about the health of divi-
dends this year, but few
likely expected that payouts
would come under attack
from an activist investor.
On Wednesday, Third
Point’s Dan Loeb called on Walt
Disney (ticker: DIS) to perma-
nently suspend its $3 billion annual
dividend and redirect the funds to
building out the Disney+ streaming
service. The move may upset share-
holders over the short term, Loeb
acknowledged, but it could gener-
ate returns measured in multiples
instead of single-digit percentages.
“Disney deserves growth-
minded, long-term oriented inves-
tors,” Loeb, whose Third Point
owned 5.5 million Disney shares as
of June 30, wrote in a letter to the
media and entertainment giant.
Wall Street appeared to agree as
Disney stock gained 1.6% on
Wednesday. But it was nonetheless
an unusual stock move following
an unusual move from an activist
investor.
Activists have been criticized in
the past for pushing companies to
pursue short-term, stock-boosting
methods such as hiking dividends
and buybacks at theexpense of
long-term growth. But in 2020,
much of the traditional activist
playbook has been upended. Ear-
lier this year—before the coronavi-
rus arrived—Elliott Management
criticized the utility Evergy
(EVRG) for buying back its stock,
arguing that the money would be
better spent investing in infra-
structure.
Admittedly Disney, like many
other companies this year, tempo-
rarily suspended its dividend as the
pandemic weighed on the economy.
That temporary halt could become
permanent if Loeb gets his way.B
BY CARLETON ENGLISH
Activist Holdings
Janus Henderson Group
(JHG)
Trian Fund revealed an initial
investment in the investment man-
ager of 18,066,612 shares. That
figure includes the purchase of
9,134,262 Janus Henderson shares
at prices ranging from $19.10 to
$20.57 each from Sept. 22 through
Oct. 1. Trian reported that it had
discussions with Janus Non-Exec-
utive Chairman Richard Gilling-
water, and intends to talk to other
members of Janus’ board and ex-
ecutive management “regarding
various strategic and operational
initiatives.”
Trian said that “due to a variety
of competitive pressures” within the
asset-management industry, those
that “possess significant scale and
product breadth” as well as have the
means for technology innovation will
be in the best position to serve cli-
ents. To that end, Trian “may encour-
age [Janus] to explore certain strate-
gic combinations...with one or more
companies in the asset-management
industry,” in which Trian may be or
soon be an investor. Trian also dis-
closed a new investment in Invesco
(IVZ) the same day it reported its
9.9% stake in Janus.
These disclosures are
from 13Ds filed with
the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
13Ds are filed within
10 days of an entity’s
attaining more than
5% in any class of a
company’s securities.
Subsequent changes
in holdings or inten-
tions must be re-
ported in amended
filings. This material is
from Oct. 1 through
Oct. 7, 2020. Source:
InsiderScore.com