With only a month left until Christmas, Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) CEO Scott Kriens sold about $4.3 million worth of his Juniper stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Perhaps Kriens is freeing up some holiday cash. But insider sales are always worth a little scrutiny (Cue dramatic music).

The SEC filings show that Kriens sold 500,000 shares last Friday at about $8.66 a share. Even after the sale, he still held 16.4 million shares through third parties, giving him about a 4.3 percent stake in Juniper.

As testimony to the power of the current Wall Street rally, investors took little notice of the stock sale. Shares of Juniper were up $0.84 (9.6%) to $9.57 in late afternoon trading Monday, making Kriens' remaining stake in the router vendor worth about $157 million. (Ho! Ho! Ho!)

The good news is that no red flags appear to accompany this sale. Juniper's stock price is well above its 52-week low of $4.15.

Across the market overall, insider selling has dropped in the past six months, according to Lon Gerber, director of insider research at Thomson Financial. That generally signals that the market has found a plateau, if not a bottom, Gerber says.

Does it mean that a rally or recovery is afoot? Nah, says Gerber. That would require some buying, not just a lack of selling.

"In Juniper's case there really hasn't been much insider selling at all," Gerber says. The only other transaction this year came in August, and that was also by Kriens in the amount of 500,000 shares.

"Executives have limited windows when they are allowed to trade Juniper stock," writes a Juniper spokeswoman, in an email to Light Reading. "Scott has always followed a consistent trading pattern -- when he has been allowed to trade -- and will continue to do so."

— Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading
www.lightreading.com