Herbalife Gains as CEO Buys Shares

is higher in early trading as the company announced that CEO Michael Johnson will exercise 1.77 million stock options that were set to expire in March and April 2015. The CEO will hold all the stock, minus amounts that will be used to cover taxes.

Herbalife is down sharply from January 2014, losing nearly 60 percent of its value. The stock is the battleground for a hedge fund war between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn. Ackman is notoriously short the stock, believing that it is a Ponzi Scheme that will ultimately go bankrupt. He has been pressuring regulators and legislators to shut the company down.

Icahn holds a different view, owning roughly 19 percent of the company.