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HAND both floats and sinks
Today marked the first public trading day of Handspring insider's stock, following the expiration of a 180-day mandatory lockup period.
Only 10 million shares were issued into the open market back in June, out of a total of more than 126 million outstanding shares. The remaining 92% or so shares can now make their way to the open market, increasing the float of Handspring's stock.
One of the reasons HAND has soared this year (compared to PALM), is due to its tiny initial float - A lot of demand for a stock of limited supply drives the price up.
If Handspring insiders are selling their stock, the float will increase and we will have a lot of demand when there is a lot of supply. Not so good for current investors who would like to see the price maximized.
And it appears insiders are selling - today's volume was 3,123,900, roughly double of an average day's volume. The stock is down 6% today, to $44.75. A far cry from the $99 5/16 we saw in November.
No one should complain too much though, since HAND is up over 100% from its 52-week low of 22 3/8 :-)
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