Eastman Kodak (EK) surges after bigwigs boost share holdings

Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) shares rose 17% to $3.65 after a regulatory filings available late Tuesday showed the photography icon’s CEO and chief financial officer purchased 36,532 shares on May 13.

Kodak’s Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez told employees that recent Kodak stock purchases reflect management’s faith in the photography pioneer’s future.

Some analysts suspect, however, that the stock price surge reflects Kodak’s recent preliminary triumphs over smartphone giant Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) in their patent-litigation battle before the U.S. International Trade Commission, a federal agency that oversees trade disputes.

Regulatory filings late Tuesday revealed that Perez and Richard Braddock, the presiding director of Kodak’s board, each purchased shares valued at around $200,000. Chief Financial Officer Antoinette McCorvey bought shares worth about $36,000.

Perez told employees on an internal website that the purchases “reflect our confidence in the company’s future and our belief in the potential of the Kodak transformation” into a digital photography and printing powerhouse.

Tags: consumer discretionary, EK, financials, NYSE

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 3:43 pm by Glenn and is filed under Consumer Discretionary Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.