Coach (COH) executives disclose reasons behind insider sales

Coach, Inc. (NYSE: COH) has taken investors' calls for greater disclosure to heart. While all public companies are required to file form 4's with the SEC after an officer or director makes a transaction involving the company's stock, Coach has gone a step further: their officers will tell you why they sold.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "In recent disclosures, Coach Chairman and Chief Executive Lew Frankfort told investors that he was holding on to shares because of his confidence in the company's future. Reed Krakoff, the company's executive creative director, reported that he was selling millions of dollars' worth of Coach stock to fund restorations to two of his homes."

The disclosures at Coach have generally cited real estate purchases as the rationale behind sales. While the company's transparency is admirable, and something I wish more companies would do, I doubt it really does much good: Since executives are always going to do something with the money from stock sales, they can just list that as a reason.

If the SEC ever does require that companies explain the motivation behind sales, I expect we'll see a lot of "CEO ... sold $124 million worth of stock to fund his retirement and diversify his portfolio" or "CFO ... sold $11.4 billion to fund his son's education at a private kindergarten".

I somehow doubt we will ever see any company, including Coach, issue a Form 4 saying that "CEO... has sold substantially all of his stock because he believes that the company has very poor prospects, and overvalued stock, and significant accounting irregularities".