Arkansas Business

The Dillard family and some Dillard’s Inc. directors have been buying and selling shares of Dillard’s stock since it was announced on Nov. 26 that shareholders would receive a special one-time cash dividend of $5 per share before the end of the year.

Shareholders as of Dec. 7 will receive the record dividend payment on Dec. 21.

By digging through Securities & Exchange Commission filings, we found that:

On Nov. 27, CEO William Dillard II and his younger brother President Alex Dillard each exercised stock options to buy half a million shares at the exercise price of $25.74, or a total cost of $12.87 million. On the same day, each man then sold 299,972 shares at $87.98 per share, bringing in $26.4 million for shares that only cost them $7.72 million and leaving each with new shares instantly worth $17.6 million and generating more than $1 million from the special dividend. Nice.

All together, Bill Dillard directly owns 1.03 million shares, which would put a total of $5.14 million in his bank account when the dividend is paid.

And Alex Dillard controls 980,346 shares, awarding him $4.9 million for the dividend payment just in time for Christmas.

William and Alex’s other brother, EVP Mike Dillard, exercised options on 300,000 shares at $25.74 for $7.72 million. He then sold 179,741 shares for $15.89 million, giving him $8.17 million in cash and new shares worth another $10.6 million. He directly owns 608,955 shares for a total payout of $3.04 million when the dividend is paid.

And don’t forget that William, Alex and Mike own 27.4, 27.9, and 26.3 percent respectively, of W.D. Co., which owns more than 4 million shares of Dillard’s stock. W.D. Co. will receive more than $20 million from the dividend windfall.

The sister of the Dillard’s brothers, Drue Matheny, who is also an EVP at the company, exercised options to buy 300,000 shares for $7.72 million and then doubled her money by selling just 164,861 of those shares for $14.57 million. She retains direct ownership of 433,474 shares, giving her $2.17 million in dividend payments.

Another Dillard’s official who jumped in on the trading action is CFO James Freeman, who exercised options to buy 60,000 shares at $25.74, or a total of $1.54 million. He sold 33,024 of those shares at $87.98, or $2.06 million.

Freeman currently has 521,266 shares, awarding him $2.6 million when the special dividend is paid.

Director Warren Stephens exercised options on 25,000 shares on Nov. 30. He bought the shares at $25.74 and sold them for an average price of $89.12, giving him a profit of $1.58 million. Through Stephens Investments Holdings LLC, Stephens owns 121,536 shares of Dillard’s, which will generate $607,680 from the special dividend.