Insiders at some of the tech industry’s biggest and most high-profile companies, including Apple, Facebook, NVIDIA and Intel, unloaded shares of their companies this week. Of course all of these trades are pretty common, as executives usually like to cash out some of their shares from time to time.
Long list of Apple insiders cash out shares
Apple insiders have been unloading shares frequently this year, but it seems that once October hit, suddenly the trend widened. Regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that seven insiders at the iPhone maker shuffled around some shares in transactions on October 1. In some cases, the executives were exercising options or cashing in some restricted stock units, while in others, they were just selling off some Apple stock.
The seven insiders who moved around Apple shares on October 1 were: SVP Phil Schiller, SVP Craig Federighi, SVP and General Counsel Bruce Sewell, COO Jeffrey Williams, CFO Luca Maestri, SVP Eddy Cue, and SVP Daniel Riccio. The last time Apple CEO Tim Cook made any transactions with his Apple stock was on August 29, according to regulatory filings. However, he dumped about 40% of his stake at that time, making for a sizable transaction.
Williams, Schiller, Cue and Federighi each sold about 44,000 shares at an average price of $113.05 each after exercising some RSUs. The trend in October among Apple execs is to do something with RSUs after they vest, apparently.
Facebook CEO sells shares for charity
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg unloaded nearly 741,000 shares, raking in $95 million this week, although he executed the transaction for charity. This was his fifth charity-related stock sale in just a few months. His initiative to give away most of his wealth is why the company ventured to create a new non-voting class of stock allowing him to retain control of the company he founded while giving his wealth away.
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg also unloaded some shares, selling 109,000 shares as she continues to dump some of her stock. Other Facebook executives who exercised transactions involving Facebook stock this week were VP David Fischer, General Counsel Colin Stretch and Director Jan Koum. Koum, cofounder of WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook, has been disposing of shares for some time. In this case, one of his trusts disposed of about 565,000 shares he indirectly owned.
NVIDIA, Intel execs sell shares
Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich unloaded about 67,500 shares of the chip maker this week after exercising 41,250 employee stock options. He hasn’t made any other transactions involving Intel stock since late July. Also NVIDIA Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress sold about 37,800 shares of the chip maker.
