“A lot of the insider selling we’ve been seeing has been modest in comparison to the previous year because stock price levels have generally, outside of the resource area, come down, so there was less incentive for broad insider selling,” said INK Research chief executive officer Ted Dixon, whose company tracks insider buying and selling to help generate investment ideas.
The list of top sellers is based on gross proceeds from selling shares, as disclosed by the insiders to Canadian or U.S. regulators, and does not reflect what profits the executives may have made on the sales, compared with what they originally paid. In an e-mailed statement, Cenovus said the two executives did not sell shares they owned. Cenovus said they used a “cashless exercise mechanism” under the Cenovus stock option plan, which allows participants to receive option profits as cash or shares.
Mr. Lemay noted that the market value of shares and share units held or controlled by Mr. Desmarais was nearly $600-million in early February.