WellPoint directors make big gains on stocks

[IndianaGreen]

WellPoint directors make big gains on stocks

As health insurance giant takes heat for premium hikes, 3 board members cash in options netting more than $600K
By Daniel Lee
Posted: February 16, 2010

Three WellPoint board members have collected a combined $625,517 in gains from stock options in the Indianapolis-based health insurance giant as the company has faced national media scrutiny and barbs from the Obama administration over premium increases.

Sheila Burke, a WellPoint director since 2004, had the largest single gain, $360,989, by cashing in 9,920 of her WellPoint options, according to a regulatory filing. Those options allowed her to buy the stock for $25.61 a share on Feb. 5. She sold those shares the same day at the then-market price of $62 a share.

Stock options, a common form of executive compensation, allow the holder to buy a company's shares for a set price over a set period of time. The options cashed in by Burke were due to expire in February 2012.

Burke, who was chief of staff to then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole from 1985 to 1996, did not respond to a request for comment left with her office at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where she is a faculty member.

WellPoint director William H.T. Bush gained $167,428 from exercising options to buy 3,056 WellPoint shares for $6.34 each Feb. 9 and selling that stock for prices ranging from $61.12 to $61.13 a share. The options exercised by Bush, brother of former President George H.W. Bush, were set to expire in July.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100216/BUSINESS03/2160329/WellPoint-directors-make-big-gains-on-stocks