Former Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) CEO Sells Stock Worth Roughly $100 Million Causing Ripple Effect

Michael Pearson, former CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) recently sold more on his holding in the firm as reported by a security filing.

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The reports indicated that Pearson had unloaded his shares quite a number of times in the past two months. The former CEO unloaded 288,441 shares worth $5.8 million on June 30. In another sale on July 5, he received $8.2 million for the sale of 411,601 shares. Another filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Pearson unloaded 4,144,687 shares for $82.9 million at the beginning of this month.

The former CEO acquired some of the shares that he unloaded as far back as 2008 when the prices were about $12 per share, and he sold them for roughly $20 per share. The peculiar thing is that the price has dropped by as much as 90% since 2015 when shares were at their peak. The pricing has aroused suspicion about Valeant’s business strategy and drug pricing strategy.

There was a lot of speculation regarding the former CEO’s decision to sell a large number of shares. Some argued that he acted like any other investor to avoid selling the stock at the bottom. One of the company’s spokespersons, however, reported that the former CEO exercised options because they were reaching expiry. The spokesman also stated that Pearson is required to hold at least 1 million Valeant shares after stepping down from the CEO position. He is also expected to continue holding a significant amount of the firm’s shares.

Valeant is no longer in charge of filing stock options on behalf of Pearson since he is no longer an employee at the firm. The company’s shares dropped by 6.9% on Wednesday for a closing price of $21.62 per share following the decision by Andrew Left to bet against the firm. Pearson’s decision to sell a large portion of his stock has also caused some frenzy among investors as they ponder over the direction and performance of the firm.

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