Rising Dow and Looming Tax Code Changes create Big Opportunities for Prospect Researchers

November 23rd, 2010
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed out the month of October 2010 at 11,118, having gained 269 points or 2.5% during the month. Since the beginning of September, the Dow steadily rose by over 980 points, representing an increase of almost 10%. The stock market's solid advances, as well as looming capital gains tax changes that will take effect in 2011, likely influenced the significant increase in stock sales by US executives during the month of October.

Donor Watch's most recent report, which covers stock sale transactions in October by wealthy college graduates, covers $4.6 billion in sales, a significant up-tick over last month. The top sellers that were reviewed in the analysis all received undergraduate degrees from major US colleges and universities.

Topping the list were the University of Chicago and the University of Southern California, both of which had total alumni selling activity that was greater than $350 million in stock during the month of October. Like the 3rd Quarter of 2010, UofC's Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp (ORCL) and USC's Marc Benioff of Saleforce.com (CRM) led their respective universities in cash raising transactions

The next tier of top schools consists of institutions that saw more than $100 million in alumni selling, including: the University of Pennsylvania, Dowling College, University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Notably, UPENN graduates and GLG Partners (GLG) board members Martin Franklin and William Lauder were significant sellers of GLG, which was acquired by hedge fund behemoth the Man Group in October. Google's (GOOG) Larry Page and Ram Shriram, both of whom are University of Michigan graduates, led their alma-mater's cash list, accounting for more than $150 million in stock sales. Stanford's list was led by Ronald B. Johnson who is the Senior Vice President of Retail at Apple Inc (AAPL). Mr. Johnson, who has a BA in Economics from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard Business School, sold 150,000 shares of AAPL with a market value at the time of $45.9 million. Despite his significant stock sales, Johnson still has almost $73 million worth of AAPL in his Donor Watch stock portfolio.

Rounding out Donor Watch's top 15 are the University of Utah University of Maryland, New York University Denison University, Purdue University, University of Wisconsin, University of Oklahoma and University of Texas at Austin. Combined, these bottom 8 schools' alumni sold more than $520 million in stock during the month of October. University of Utah's selling was led by J.W. Marriott Jr and Richard E. Marriott, both of whom sold significant blocks of stock in Marriott International Inc (MAR). Both Denison University and Purdue University have alums who were senior executives at Arcsight Inc (ARST), which was sold to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) in October. These two alumni realized almost $90 million from their series of stock sales.

Ivy League Schools such as Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Yale University and Princeton University, also had alumni with significant stock sales that ranged from $24 million up to $33 million during October. Some of the more notable Ivy Alumni donor prospects include: General Mills (GIS) EVP Marc Y Belton (Dartmouth College / $12.63mm), Qualcomm Inc (QCOM) co-founder Irwin Jacobs (Cornell University / $14.8mm), and Eaton Corp (ETN) CEO Sandy Cutler (Yale University / $19.5 mm).

Donor Watch's top donor prospect lists also track alumni with various graduate degrees. For October, the MBA programs with the most selling activity were the Harvard Business School, University of Texas, New York University's Stern School of Business, Baylor University and Stanford University.

For more information about Donor Watch or its top donor prospect targeting reports, please visit Donor Watch's Website. Donor Watch provides its reports and analyses to the development offices and prospect research teams at many leading colleges, universities and non-profits. Donor Watch's unique and robust set of research tools empower fund raisers to manage their relationships with top and high potential donors. To sign-up for a free trial of Donor Watch, please click here.