RE:div. cut I know it sucks to be on a fixed income (retired) and have this happen, but publicly sold stocks are not a very good thing to use as part of your base retirement income.
These type of holdings/income are a nice to have that are best used to stash away for retirement "extras" like adding to your savings for a nice cruise or to fund your retirement hobbies, as examples.
What the CEO has done is not uncommon, nor is it illegal.
The CEO knew of this cut coming, but there are laws surrounding this type of event.
The CEO already owned a lot of stock and like the rest of us, he lost a lot of DIV income, but he was blocked by law form selling prior to this event. He, like the rest of us, could purchase stock after it dropped, so he did.
The CEO wanted to demonstrate that he is still a believer in his company and increase confidence with the shareholders.
There are legal ramifications surrounding "insider information" and passing that on to existing investors, other insiders, or potential investors.
The Stock market is a gamble. I'd never consider upcomming earnings from DIV's or selling shares at a profite as part of my core retirement plan.
Stock market gains are good to add extra money for a better quality of life, but should not be considered to replace base income in your retirement years.
Like you, I'll apply my earnings to my retirement (in about 4 years in my case), but as extra benefits, not as part of my base retiement income that I will need to count on.
It's the stock market and it's always going to be a gamble that you should never count on.
My stock holdings for TNT have lost over $90,000 in SP value due to the recent actions by TNT. The DIV cut sucks and the resulting SP drop didn't help either, but I'd rather see them cut the DIV than go belly-up from over-paying each month.
It'll take at least a couple to five years for the SP to recover and maybe during that time the DIV will go up to.
If either of these go up, that's a blessing, and it will be far better than the SP and DIV going to zero or the company itself going belly-up.
As for the CEO buying stock, he is allowed to do this by law and he was not allowed to buy at a special price or have any special rules applied to him that would give him an advantage over us. Again, there are secuities laws that dictate what the insiders are and are not allowed to do.
You may have also noticed that TNT will be buying back 10% of all stocks in an effort to increase our stock price. That'll reduce the number of shares available which should then increase the SP a few % for the ones we own.
Be aware, if the CEO wants to sell stocks after this publicly announced action, happens, he has every right to do that to, but he also knows that will send a negative signal so I expect he will not sell after the stock buy-back.
I'm also not 100% sure, but think there is a law that blocks him from selling for a fixed period of time after corporate actions like a buy back happen.