stock option posts

Feed

CEO scandal? No worries, says Cramer: buy KB Homes

Options backdating scandals have felled many a tech CEO, and KB Home (NYSE:KBH) had the unlikely distinction of being an unlikely choice for an options backdating scandal. The company's CEO, Bruce Karatz, resigned today over stock options misdeeds. Jim Cramer (among others) didn't mourn him much, however, and said it's actually a good thing. Cramer says you have to go buy shares of KBH, because as the options scandal pressures a stock down, then it inches up, and then on the resolution of the scandal you must buy. With the CEO resigning, that is now out of the way.

Cramer said that even if you back-date options you have to think you are looking out favorably on the company down the road anyway. If a CEO was willing to take stock over cash then you should be inclined to take his lead. He thinks at 1.25 times book value that is a very cheap price. It has almost no debt. It could be a takeover target because it is so cheap. Cramer thinks private equity buyers could do it, or even a Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN).

KBH is widely and wrongly perceived as a California and Las Vegas homebuilder, but that isn't the whole truth, says Cramer. California is now 31% of sales and the company builds homes in 13 states. When California comes back, so will KBH. It also builds award-winning neighborhoods. He said he didn't like it when the shares were super-high, but now closer to lows he likes it.

Apple made 'irregular' option grants to Jobs, other execs

Investors wonder whether Apple Computer may have backdated option grants, or reset the grant date (and therefore, strike price) to make them more attractive for the recipients, as the company announced today just after the bell that it found "irregularities" in certain option grants several years ago.

One of the irregular grants was made to Steve Jobs, sometime between 1997 and 2001, although Apple says that it was cancelled quickly and the company's CEO made no financial gain as a result.

While it's certainly commendable that Apple is being proactive about the announcement, I can only wonder whether some other employees did record a significant gain in those boom years of 1999 and 2000 -- when this sort of crooked practice was whispered to be quite common.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 11, 2012: 06:10 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

AOL Business News

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Sponsored Links

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

Page Loaded in 1329001856657 ms.