Some stockholders in the Phoenix, AZ-based homebuilder scored sizeable gains Tuesday on the announcement the company is merging in a $1.8 billion deal with the homebuilding subsidiary of Bloomfield Hills, MI-based Pulte Corp.
Common stock in the Arizona company closed up $4.60 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange at $38.40 on volume of slightly more than 3.5 million shares.
That closing price is about $7.36 a share more than Avatar received on the sale of the 205,000 shares--about $1.5 million more than the $6.4 million the company netted on the April 16 sale.
It is a merger that surprised even officials at Coral Gables-based Avatar, the company that is developing Poinciana, a 47,000-acre mixed-use residential project south of Kissimmee, FL.
"At the time, the price of the stock was substantially above our average price per share, and it appeared an appropriate time to sell some of the shares we had," Juanita Kerrigan, Avatar vice president and secretary, tells GlobeSt.com.
News of the stock activity also precedes the intent at the Coral Gables company to elect two new well-connected members to its board of directors. It's also the first time in the company's history that two females have been nominated to serve on the board.
The new nominees are Elizabeth A. Moynihan, 71, a noted author and lecturer on architectural history, an independent director at Oppenheimer Funds Inc. and wife of former New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan; and Beth A. Stewart, 44, co-chairperson of Storetrax.com Inc. and president of Stewart Real Estate Capital.
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