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GE CEO Larry Culp Bought More Stock Thursday After Shares Slid -- Barrons.com GE CEO Larry Culp Bought More Stock Thursday After Shares Slid -- Barrons.com Dow Jones By Al Root General Electric CEO Larry Culp bought more GE stock, his second open-market purchase this week, after forensic accountant Harry Markopolos released a 175-page report that questioned the conglomerate's accounting practices. After the release of the negative report, GE stock (ticker: GE) dropped 11%, cutting year to date gains to about 10%, close to the return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the same span. Culp purchased $2 million worth of GE stock on Thursday, paying an average per-share price of $7.93 for 252,200 shares. He made the purchases through a holding company, according to a form Culp filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He now owns 1.17 million GE shares through the holding company and an additional 12,592 GE shares through trusts. GE didn't immediately respond to a request to make Culp available for comment on his latest stock purchases. Markopolos told Barron's in a phone interview he believes GE's accounting is fraudulent. His report focuses on accounting for long-term care insurance, a legacy business that is part of GE Capital and which generated a $6.2 billion charge against earnings in early 2018. A GE spokeswoman called Markopolos' claims "meritless," and provided emailed statements from Culp and the head of GE's audit committee: "GE will always take any allegation of financial misconduct seriously. But this is market manipulation -- pure and simple. Mr. Markopolos's report contains false statements of fact," said Culp. "And these claims could have been corrected if he had checked them with GE before publishing the report." "The representations by Mr. Markopolos about GE's accounting practices are simply not accurate. The report contains numerous novel interpretations and downright mistakes about the actual accounting requirements, making his conclusions about GE's reporting questionable at best," said Leslie Seidman, GE director, chair of Audit Committee and former chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Inside Scoop is a regular Barron's feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members -- so-called insiders -- as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups. |
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Msg # | Subject | Author | Recs | Date Posted |
6324 | Re: GE CEO Larry Culp Bought More Stock Thursday After Shares Slid -- Barrons.com | delt1970 | 0 | 8/20/2019 10:44:16 AM |