Some TECO execs who sold now buying

Frazzled TECO Energy Inc. shareholders who are looking for some direction on what to do with their downtrodden shares could opt to follow the lead of the Tampa utility's top officials.

Some of them sold TECO shares in the weeks following the company's April 17 shareholders meeting, when the stock was still hovering near its 52-week high of $29.05 set on April 23. Now that TECO's stock has been pummeled by concerns about the company's wholesale power business, TECO officials are buying, albeit in most cases in amounts far smaller than their earlier stock sales.

Chief financial officer Gordon Gillette, Tampa Electric president John Ramil, senior vice president and general counsel Sheila McDevitt and other senior executives and directors have purchased TECO shares at prices between $10.69 and $15.65 since the beginning of October. So far, chairman and chief executive Robert Fagan, who sold 126,239 option-linked and performance-based shares of TECO stock in April, hasn't been among the buyers.

The biggest inside purchaser so far: director Tom Rankin, former chief executive of Lykes Energy Inc. Rankin bought 95,000 shares on Oct. 23 for between $13.15 and $13.20 a share, then bought another 13,100 shares on Nov. 6 for $15.65 a share.

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