LinkedIn CEO & SVP Dump More Shares To Make Millions (LNKD)

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) disclosed two Form 4 filings made with the for two officers.  While these were under adopted 10b5-1 trading plans as part of the insider trading policy, sales that go into millions of dollars are usually screened by watchers who look for the cashing out of key insiders.  The shares sold were also under the A Shares rather than the key B Shares.

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Weiner sold some 74,584 Class A shares for some $6.8 million and ended with 100,902 Class A shares after the transaction.  Keep in mind that these are not a sale of the Class B shares. The share sales took place in 3 blocks (four blocks if you count a 100 share listing) on June 1.

David Henke, Senior Vice President of Operations, sold some 52,500 Class A shares for nearly $4.8 million after averaging out the share prices.  Just like with the CEO, these are not a sale of the Class B shares, and these also were sold in three blocks on June 1.

Keep in mind that these share sales were on the heels of share sales last week in filings seen from other key employees with the last names Rottenberg and Nishar as well as sales previously made by Greylock (VC/private equity) and employees with last names Battle, Moritz, and Gamson.

LinkedIn shares fell 0.5% to $91.09 on Monday and shares were indicated down another 1% at $90.23 in the after-hours session. This stock was just at $100 in the middle of last week and the 52-week trading range is $55.98 to $120.63.

It is those Class B shares where all the power is held.  Here are 11 other companies outside of Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) where shareholders have no real power at all.

JON C. OGG