5 Varian execs ride wave of success

STOCK SALES ADD UP TO $5.8 MILLION

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Varian's good fortune was also good fortune for some of its top executives.

The scientific instrument company beat its first-quarter earnings expectations by so much that the stock jumped 11 percent the day after results were announced. Several insiders benefited by selling shares that same day under pre-arranged trading plans.

Varian's strong results seemed to be the result of increased sales across many of its products, plus the impact of several cost-savings measures it's taken in recent years.

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Insiders ride Omnicell's success

SHARES SOLD AT HIGHEST RATE IN FIVE YEARS

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

For Omnicell of Mountain View, 2006 was an explosive year. But 2007 is shaping up to be even better. That has cheered investors. And with the stock rising, insiders are cashing in their stock and options.

Since the beginning of 2007, insiders have sold $4.8 million in stock. Although the quarter is only about half over, that still represents the most selling in a single quarter in five years, according to Thomson Financial. The company had its initial public offering of stock in August 2001.

Omnicell makes a variety of systems that help health care organizations manage things like physician order management and pharmaceuticals. For instance, one of the company's most popular systems uses a bar code scanner to monitor the flow of prescription drugs along every step -- from the order to its being administered by the patient.

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A profitable year for Trimble

EXECS CASH IN AS SHARES RISE BY 40 PERCENT

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

For the past year, Trimble Navigation has been headed in the right the direction. The stock is up. Revenues are up. And so are sales of stock by insiders.

Based in Sunnyvale, the company offers a range of positioning products, such as global positioning systems, or GPS. It's had a steady stream of big announcements in the last few weeks.

Back in December, Trimble announced that it would pay $496 million in cash and stock to acquire Fremont-based @Road, which makes mobile products that track employees in the field. On Jan. 25, Trimble reported that revenue for 2006 was $940.2 million -- up 21 percent from $774.9 million in 2005.

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CyberSource execs ring up gains

PROFIT GROWING FOR A SURVIVOR OF DOT-COM BUST

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Count CyberSource of Mountain View among the survivors of the dot-com bust. Recently, the company has shown signs that its persistence is translating into growth.

If that trend holds, nobody would be more satisfied -- or stand to gain more -- than William McKiernan, who founded the company in 1994. McKiernan still serves as chairman and chief executive and remains the largest stockholder. In the past two years, McKiernan has sold more than $8 million in stock and still holds more than 3 million shares of CyberSource.

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