SEC to review Swift insider trading
Swift Transportation Co. Inc., the largest U.S. publicly held truckload carrier, said the Securities and Exchange Commission was informally reviewing purchases and trades of the company’s stock by Chairman and Chief Executive Jerry Moyes.
An announcement said the board had adopted new rules governing stock trades by company officers and employees in response to the probe.
In May, Moyes bought 187,000 Swift shares for his own account after the board authorized an expanded stock buyback program, Reuters reported. The company said it would put $622,000 of Moyes’ stock trading profit into a trust to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
According to financial advice Web site Motley Fool, shares of Phoenix-based Swift shot up 20 percent after the company issued dramatically higher second-quarter earnings guidance and outlined plans for an extra $40 million stock buyback. Moyes purchased the 187,000 shares between May 21 and May 24 before Swift announced its new policy and earnings guidance May 25. Motley Fool reported that Swift has a “blackout period” that prevents insider trading up to three weeks before a scheduled quarterly earnings release, but the policy does not appear to apply to earnings revisions.
In March made a similar purchase of 150,000 shares ahead of an announcement about progress on its stock repurchase program.