Activision Shares Slide After CEO Kotick Sells Shares

Activision Blizzard (ATVI) shares are down sharply for the second straight day after CEO Bobby Kotick disclosed the sale of a large block of shares.

Kotick personally sold one million shares at an average price of $10.1834 a share; he received the shares after exercising 260,558 options with a strike price of 51.04 cents, and another 739,442 options with a strike of $1.0315. He also sold another 242,425 shares held by a trust he controls.

Two analysts bullish on the videogame publisher weighed in today to defend the stock.

Cowen’s Doug Creutz said he doesn’t believe the sales are a signal that management is concerned about near-term operating results. “On the contrary, we continue to believe current management EPS guidance is conservative,” he writes. Creutz notes that appears to be “lingering investor concern” about insider selling due to a 2002 sale of shares by Kotick prior to a downturn in ATVI’s stock price.

Read the rest of this post