My take on HVN is that it has been (still is) sold off by the...

My take on HVN is that it has been (still is) sold off by the instos since the end of 2001, or quite possibly started even 12mths before that.
The reason for the sell-off probably that HVN had enjoyed 20yrs of solid expansion and that prospects for that continued rate of expansion in Aust. were now greatly reduced - time to take profits and move on.
With over 1.058 billion shares on issue (5 share splits since listing), I imagine it would take some time (years even) before the instos reached the weighting of shares they thought appropriate to hold, if any! When lots of big holders decide to move out, the sp does only one thing - you guessed it!
Reaching a low of $1.88 in early 2003 was still not a bad profit if you'd picked the shares up in an IPO for 10cents at listing (remembering that Gerry Harvey had a previous success record with Norman Ross Stores).

Seeing as HVN has never had a minus profit result in this time, and still manages to open eleven to twelve new stores every year (Aus and NZ), not to mention what he's starting to do o'seas, and has done with the likes of Rebel Sport (and now maybe the Coles spin off's?), I imagine that the sp will only do one thing when the sell-off starts to thin out!

During 2005, many large tranches of HVN shares changed hands in single trades at what I suspect were predetermined prices. eg in early June the sp ran hard up from 2.50 to 2.78 and then dropped swiftly back to 2.50. I read a post elswhere on this thread that asked what that 19 odd mill share exchange in early June 05 was all about, - I can tell you it was the NAB taking a 18 odd mill position @ 2.75ea. On the 19th Dec 05, the CBA increased it's holding by 10.8 mill. (to 132.35 mill, or 12.51% of HVN).

Now the sell-off may be thinning out, or it may still have some distance to go, only time will tell.

If anybody has any thoughts on this content one way or another, I'd like to hear your views.