Despite options, RMI still strong, execs say

WEATHERSFIELD — Two senior executives at the parent company of RMI Titanium Co. recently cashed in about $4 million worth of stock options.

Despite the moves, Timothy Rupert, company president, and John Odle, executive vice president, still believe Weathersfield-based RTI International Metals will continue to perform well, said Richard Leone, a company spokesman.

Options allow a person to buy stock at a predetermined price and sell it at market prices, which could be much higher.

On Nov. 28, Rupert sold 31,000 shares of RTI stock for about $2.2 million, according to Yahoo! Finance. The prices of the shares sold ranged from $71.14 to $71.74 a share.

Rupert acquired the shares the same day by exercising options granted by RTI.

The prices of the options ranged from $10.22 to $25.56 a share.

Yahoo! didn’t provide a value for the acquisition.

At the midpoint of those values, the options would have been acquired for about $555,000.

On Nov. 29, Odle sold 34,000 shares of stock for about $2.5 million. The prices of those shares ranged from $74.25 to $75 a share.

Odle acquired 24,000 of those shares the same day at a price of 10.22, based on his stock option agreement.

The cost of exercising those options was about $245,000.

The selling of shares is sometimes seen by investors as a sign that executives don’t have faith in a company’s future.

Leone said that wasn’t the case in these transactions and that Rupert and Odle had legitimate reasons for exercising their options.