Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla and the Executive Vice President Susman Sally dumped the company shares on the same day the company announced its experimental COVID-19 vaccine succeeded in clinical trials.
The vaccine announcement sent Pfizer’s shares soaring almost 15% on.
Bourla offloaded 62% (132,508 shares) of his stock holdings at an average price of $41.94 a share, or $5.6 million total. While Sally sold 29% (43,662 shares) of his holding pocketing a total of $1.83 million.
This is according to filings registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 52-week high for Pfizer’s stock is $41.99, meaning Bourla sold his stock at almost its highest value in the past year.
Pfizer on Monday together with its German partner BioNTech said their experimental Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective based on initial trial results of 94 observed cases in a trial with thousands of participants, thus becoming the first firms to report positive results from late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trials.
On Monday Pfizer shares opened at $41.86 and touched an intraday high and low of $41.99 and $38.38, respectively. However, the scrip settled at $39.20. The stock was hovering at $38.33 on Wednesday November 11 and it closed 0.47% down at $38.50 per share.
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Pfizer confirmed that Bourla’s stock sales were part of a plan that allows major shareholders and insiders of exchange-listed corporations to trade a predetermined number of shares at an agreed time.
“The sale of these shares is part of Dr. Bourla’s personal financial planning and a pre-established (10b5-1) plan, which allows, under SEC rules, major shareholders and insiders of exchange-listed corporations to trade a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time,” Reuters said quoting Pfizer.
“Through our stock plan administrator, Dr. Bourla authorized the sale of these shares on August 19, 2020, provided the stock was at least at a certain price,” the company added.
By; Ifunanya Ikueze
