US financial regulators are investigating whether analysts are breaking insider trading laws when they attempt to calculate Apple’s sales figures.
Analysts carry out often weekly “channel checks” to monitor trends in product sales — With Apple the most high profile subject. The information is then passed onto investors who use it to inform their share trading.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission is now looking into the legality of the practice.
Where once insider-trading cases were built around a single tip about a merger, for example, prosecutors appear to be broadening into new territory,” WSJ reports. “They are examining how arcane, confidential, but presumably routine data may move company stocks.”
An Apple spokesman said that, ahead of its quarterly results filings, the company does not release any information, but declined to comment further.
