ARD Executives Sell 200,000 Shares in March
CEO Rochford and Chairman McCabe each Sold 100,000 Shares


Are the share sales by CEO Rochford and Chairman McCabe cause for alarm? Is this a sign that the wheels are coming off the cart at Arena Resources? Should you avoid ARD share purchases currently? To all three questions I say, "Absolutely not!"

If we go back to 2003 an equity incentive plan was approved by shareholders allowing the issuance of 1 million stock options to be vested at 20% a year for 5 years at which time 100% of the shares will be exercisable. What this means is that in 2005 and in 2006 both Messrs. Rochford and McCabe each received 100,000 stock options in each of those years.

Keep in mind that Messrs. Rochford and McCabe each collect a salary of only $36,000 annually. Their compensation is really from the sale of shares of stock. Therefore it should be no surprise to see that these two executives sell a portion of their shares each year. Back in 2005 we see that both Rochford and McCabe sold 100,000 shares between the dates of March 31st and April 8th.

Fast-forward to 2006 and we see that the big "R" and the big "M" each sell another 100,000 shares of common stock on March 22, 2006. Again, this is just a repeat of the pattern in 2005. The number of shares sold is no coincidence- both executives received 100,000 stock options in 2005 and again in 2006.

Currently CEO Rochford and Chairman McCabe each control about 1,112,600 shares or about 8.25% of the shares outstanding. There is no need for alarm. The wheels are not coming off the cart. You should continue to buy ARD shares at current prices based on the significant margin of safety and discount to the intrinsic value of the shares.