Wall Street Journal: Insiders at GameStop, BlackBerry, LaCroix Maker Are Suddenly Sitting on Big Stock Gains

by Theo Francis

Retail day traders and Reddit stock pickers aren’t the only ones riding a surge in stock market gains. So are some chief executives and board members at long-struggling companies.

Ryan Cohen, the 35-year-old internet entrepreneur who bought a stake in GameStop Corp. GME -44.29% last year and joined its board earlier this month after agitating for strategic changes, is suddenly holding a stake in the videogame retailer worth $1.74 billion at Thursday’s close.

Pay consultants warn that tying compensation to all-or-nothing stock price triggers can result in awards based on short-lived market swings. A 10-day average can limit that risk, but longer averaging periods would be better, said Marc Hodak, a partner with executive-compensation consulting firm Farient Advisors LLC. “There’s just too much else that’s going to be driving the stock price that management has nothing to do with, even absent a situation like this,” Mr. Hodak said.

Three BlackBerry executives on Jan. 20 sold 131,454 shares at prices averaging between $12.63 and $13.01, for total proceeds of $1.68 million, according to data from InsiderScore. At the company’s Dec. 31 closing price, the sales would have yielded about half as much.

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