Michael Kors Holdings Ltd (KORS) Insiders Poised for Sell-Off

It always feels good to see CEOs and other management-level employees buying up big swaths of stock in their own company. I also love to see that other big firms are investing in the businesses that I own — it gives me a sense of ease to see that I’m not the only one. Conversely, it’s frustrating to watch a CEO sell off a huge chunk of their holding when the stock price goes up a bit. So it’s understandable that Michael Kors Holdings Ltd (NYSE:KORS) is taking a little hit today after it filed a shelf offering last night.

A shelf offering is normally a notice that the company wants to issue some new shares, up to a certain number or value, and is then going to actually issue them over a period of time. So it may file to issue 200 shares over two years, and then issue 10 every month for 20 months. But it could also issue all of them at once, or in groups of 50, or none. It’s really just a paperwork-saving system of issuance.

Kors’ newest filing isn’t for new shares, though; it’s for shares that have been locked up with major holders since the company went public. The two major sellers are Michael Kors — the person, not the company — and Sportswear Holdings. Kors’ stake is going to drop from 3.9% down to 2.4%, while Sportswear’s will fall from 15.6% to 5.8%. As an extra little kick, CEO John Idol is going to sell off 2 million shares as well.

Great.

Payday
It’s not hard to figure out why the sellers want to sell. Since the company’s IPO at the end of 2011, the stock price has risen 160%. If Kors were to get today’s share price for his 3 million shares, he’d bring home almost $190 million. That seems like a fair reward for the hard work he’s put in, and I don’t think anyone would begrudge him the pay, but it irks us to watch these big shareholders sell. Does it mean that he thinks the company has hit its high point? Is he worried about a takeover? What does he know that we don’t that’s enticing him to sell off? It could simply be that he wants to buy a plane or an island, a la Larry Ellison.

While it’s certainly annoying, it’s not the end of the world. Kors still has a strong product, and seems to be snatching market share from Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH) and other high-end designers. Comparable sales were up 41% in the last quarter at Kors’ American locations, while Coach had a 2% drop in its stores. That should give investors hope for the long haul, and does something to lessen the frustration of seeing insiders sell, but it’s not a fix.