Seven company insiders at fast-growing Digital Insight Corp. have simultaneously unloaded almost 20 percent of their equity in the company, netting them a total of $76.9 million.
The Aug. 4 sell-off was tied to a July 31 secondary offering by the Calabasas-based company, a leading provider of Internet banking services.
“This is considered to be the most orderly way for the insiders holding the stock for some time to get some liquidity on their investment,” said Digital Insight President John Dorman.
Digital Insight’s Douglas Carlisle, H.D. Montgomery, Mark Siegel, Michael Laufer and Thomas Bredt each sold 356,348 shares of common stock at $31 per share on Aug. 4, and now each indirectly hold a little over 2 million shares, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, a company that monitors stock ownership. Director John Jarve sold 356,348 shares at $31 each, and company executive Sonja Hoel sold 341,985 shares.
As of late last week, Digital Insight’s stock was trading at about $26 a share. That compares with its 52-week low of $19 a share in September 1999, and its 52-week high of $86 on Feb. 10.
Paul Elliott, an analyst with First Call, said the insider sales are not alarming.
“What you don’t want to see is the insiders really clearing out of their position at low prices, but this doesn’t fall into that category,” Elliott said. “It’s a way for the company to raise money, and a way for the insiders to sell some of their stock. It was just a way for them to turn their stock into cash.”
He added that the sale is no reflection on the company’s prospects.
“My original take on it would be, it’s not a good thing that insiders are selling at these prices,” Elliott said. “But at the same time, I don’t think it’s anything to get excited about.”
Vincent Daniel of CIBC World Markets, an analyst who covers Digital Insight, agreed.
“It does not mean the company is in trouble,” he said. “It’s a normal course of venture capital’s cycle.”
Companies such as Digital Insight often have voracious appetites for cash, which is needed to fuel their rapid growth. The company has grown from 75 employees to roughly 650 since the end of last year, and hopes to hire up to 300 more by December.
