In a move that bumped Sears Holdings (SHLD) stock by more than 10 percent Monday, Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert bought nearly 526,000 shares the same week he revealed “substantial doubt” the company could keep its doors open.
Lampert bought the shares, worth more than $4.1 million, over a span of three days from March 22-24, according to a Friday regulatory filing.
The Sears CEO, already the company’s biggest shareholder, isn’t the only company-affiliated recent buyer of stock.
Fairholme Capital Management has purchased Sears stock as recently as Monday, when it bought more than 14,000 shares, according to a filing. Fairholme’s chief investment officer, Bruce Berkowitz, is also a member of Sears’ board of directors.
But Fairholme didn’t start there. Since March 10, the company has bought more than 1.4 million Sears shares, multiple filings showed.
The moves come amid troubling times for the 130-year-old department store.
After the March 22 release acknowledging the chain’s doubt that it could survive after it lost $2 billion last year, Sears share prices plummeted by about 12 percent. Three months earlier, Lampert announced in January the closing of 42 Sears stores.
Sears released a statement last week stressing that it believes it can save the sinking ship.
“It is very important to reiterate that Sears Holdings remains focused on executing our transformative plan,” wrote Chief Financial Officer Jason Hollar in the March 22 post on the company’s website. “Despite the risks outlined we remain confident in our financial position.”
