A recently filed federal lawsuit accuses the publicly traded company K12 Inc. of misleading investors by putting forward overly positive public statements during much of last year, only later to reveal that it had missed key operational and financial targets.
It also alleges that former CEO Ronald J. Packard 鈥渞eaped the rewards鈥� of the bullish projections by selling millions of dollars worth of stock in the months before an October announcement of disappointing news sent its price plummeting.
The legal action asserts that Mr. Packard sold 43 percent of his personally held K12 common stock for gross proceeds of $6.4 million during those months when the plaintiffs contend that the stock price for the Herndon, Va.-based company was 鈥渁rtificially inflated.鈥�
Company officials and Mr. Packard declined interview requests, but in statements to Education Week, they strongly denied the claims laid out in the legal action, which seeks class-action status.
鈥淚t is an unfortunate, but not unusual, practice for plaintiffs鈥� law firms to file class-action lawsuits against publicly traded companies who experience a drop in their stock price, and then attempt to solicit potential clients to join the class,鈥� company spokesman Jeff Kwitowski said in an e-mail. 鈥淲e remain focused on our mission to provide high-quality education products and services to the students, parents, teachers, and schools we serve.鈥�
He also said that Mr. Packard had been forthright about his trading through his creation of what is known as a rule 10b5-1 plan, a type of document established by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Such plans provide a legal process through which a company executive makes stock trades in circumstances where inside information 鈥渨as not a factor in the decision鈥� to make transactions, by the SEC鈥檚 description.
Following SEC Rules
In keeping with SEC rules, Mr. Packard鈥檚 plan was designed to set the timing of his sales in advance and to eliminate his discretion on when shares were bought or sold, Mr. Kwitowski said.
Mr. Kwitowski also said that the value of Mr. Packard鈥檚 stock sales was 鈥渟ignificantly less鈥� than the lawsuit claims, and that the idea that it represented 43 percent of his personally held K12 common stock was off the mark, too.
In July, K12 settled a lawsuit brought by a group of investors, including the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, for $6.75 million. That legal action claimed the company had misled investors about its academic results and business practices. K12 agreed to the settlement but denied the allegations.
Stefanie J. Sundel, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, brought by the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, said the new legal filing was unconnected to the earlier case. She declined further comment on the suit, which was filed in January in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.
K12 is one of the biggest and most controversial names in for-profit education in the United States. The company manages schools in 30 states with a combined enrollment of about 125,000 students, and it has lobbied aggressively in state legislatures over the years for policies allowing expansion of online programs, a core business of K12.
The company announced Mr. Packard鈥檚 resignation as chief executive in January of this year.
But Trace A. Urdan, a senior analyst for Wells Fargo Securities in San Francisco, said that among professional investors, it was widely anticipated by mid-2013鈥攖he period targeted in the lawsuit鈥攖hat management changes at the company were coming and that Mr. Packard would be leaving the post.
In that context, Mr. Packard鈥檚 sale of stock was not unusual and it fit the profile of an executive leaving a top corporate position, said the analyst, who conducts independent evaluations of K12 on behalf of Wells Fargo鈥檚 investor clients.
In all likelihood, 鈥渉is stock sale was more related to his impending departure from the company and the management team,鈥� Mr. Urdan said, rather than a desire to sell stock before bad news came to light.
Mr. Urdan did not think investors were likely to be rattled by the new legal action; they would probably expect it to get settled, he said. Investors are likely to pay closer attention, he argued, to K12鈥檚 performance as judged by its ability increase student enrollment, and other factors.
The new lawsuit cites a series of statements made throughout 2013 by company officials, including Mr. Packard and Nathaniel A. Davis, K12鈥檚 current CEO, voicing optimism about the company鈥檚 ability to grow.
For instance, Mr. Packard said in March of last year that the 鈥渂usiness-development environment鈥� for K12 was 鈥渁s good as we鈥檝e ever had it,鈥� according to the lawsuit. In August, the complaint says, Mr. Davis touted 鈥渟ignificant marketing efforts鈥� to enroll more students.
But in an Oct. 8 statement filed with the SEC, K12 said that its fiscal 2014 revenue guidance was between $905 million and $925 million鈥攍ower than expectations鈥攁nd that enrollment of students was also lower than expected.
Following those revelations, the company鈥檚 stock fell by 38 percent, to an eight-month low of $17.60, on Oct. 9, the lawsuit says. As a result, the plaintiffs say, they absorbed 鈥渟ignificant investor losses.鈥� (The company鈥檚 stock price has crept up since then, and, as of last week, it was trading at about $22 a share.)
The plaintiffs claim that K12鈥檚 explanations that inadequate promotional efforts were partly to blame for underwhelming enrollment were at odds with earlier statements that strong marketing was underway. The company ignored other factors that signaled it would miss its goals, the lawsuit contends.
Transparency Questions
It is not unusual to see lawsuits filed by investors who allege misleading information was put forward by companies before a sharp drop in stock prices, said Jesse M. Fried, a professor at Harvard University鈥檚 law school. And in those cases, it helps the plaintiffs if they can show a major selling of stock by company executives before the price fell, he said.
The SEC instituted rule 10b5-1 plans in 2000 to establish policies that would deter insider trading while also giving company officials the right to prearrange trades that are not based on insider information.
Simply creating a 10b5-1 plan does not provide an absolute defense for company officials against insider trading, the SEC has said. Those who file the forms must still meet various standards to show they acted properly. Establishing a plan 鈥減ermits persons to trade in certain specified circumstances where it is clear that the information they are aware of is not a factor in the decision to trade, such as pursuant to a pre-existing plan, contract, or instruction that was made in good faith,鈥� the SEC has explained.
But rule 10b5-1 plans have drawn criticism from those who say the process of creating and following them lacks transparency and does not offer adequate safeguards to prevent corporate executives from benefiting from inside information.
Critics note, for instance, that 10b5-1 plans are not required to be filed with the SEC, and so the details of those plans often remain hidden.
K12 company documents filed with the SEC reference Mr. Packard鈥檚 10b5-1 plan, and say that his sales transactions follow it. Mr. Kwitowski, the company spokesman, said K12 and Mr. Packard would not disclose details of his 10b5-1, which would amount to revealing 鈥渇uture trading plans.鈥� Keeping that information private is consistent with practices of other companies, the spokesman added.
Many 10b5-1 plans are created for legitimate reasons, said Mr. Fried, such as when an executive owns a lot of stock and wants to sell it but is afraid of essentially becoming 鈥渓ocked up鈥� with stock because of fears of being accused of insider trading.
But it is hard to know whether executives build their plans to sell based on inside knowledge of negative information, he said. And in many situations, he said, there is a good chance the details of 10b5-1plans will never come to light.
In and of itself, 鈥渢he mere fact that stock sales are executed pursuant to a 10b5-1 plan means absolutely nothing,鈥� Mr. Fried said.
Available Options
In lawsuits such as the one brought against K12 by the Oklahoma firefighters鈥� pension system, he added, the plaintiffs will typically try to get the details of a 10b5-1 plan entered into the record to try to prove their case that investors were misled.
Mr. Kwitowski, in a statement, said that all of the shares Mr. Packard traded during the period in question and detailed in his 10b5-1 plan were older options awarded to him years earlier that were set to expire, and that non-option K12 shares he owned were not sold and were not part of his plan.
Mr. Kwitowski also said that the value that Mr. Packard received from the stock sales was much less than the $6.4 million stated in the lawsuit, because of the cost of exercising the options.
Upon facing the expiration of stock options, stockholders typically have alternatives that carry a variety of potential financial costs, said Barbara Baksa, the executive director of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals, a membership association based in Concord, Calif.
It鈥檚 true that when options expire, a stockholder would lose the right, or the option, to buy and then sell that stock, and the options would have no value, said Ms. Baksa. So an executive could go ahead and exercise the right to buy, and then sell the stock, as Mr. Packard did.
Or, Ms. Baksa said, a shareholder could choose to exercise the options on the stock to keep a portion or all of it.
In either case, exercising the options 鈥渋s a fairly expensive proposition,鈥� she said, because of the costs of taxes, fees, and the price of purchasing the options.
