Company Insiders Who've Sold the Most Stock this Year
July 30, 2015When you think of people making the most money on the sale of their company’s stock, you might expect to see the likes of Bill Gates and Larry Page, but in reality the vast majority of insiders who have sold stock so far this year work for investment firms with major stakes in those companies.
Last month, we published a list of companies and industries who sold the most stock, so we decided to look a bit deeper at the individual insiders making those sales.
The world’s richest man tops the list, selling more than $717 million of Microsoft stock in the first half of the year. Mr. Gates is followed quickly by Edward Garden, who sold on behalf of the investment firm Trian Partners he helped found, more than $636 million of Dollar Family Stores where he used to serve as a board director. Mr. Garden also serves on the board of Wendy’s where he sold, on behalf of Trian, nearly $123 million in the fast food giant’s stock.
| Rank | Company | Insider | Amount US$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MICROSOFT CORP | GATES WILLIAM H III | $717,407,400 |
| 2 | FAMILY DOLLAR STORES INC | GARDEN EDWARD P | $636,664,978 |
| 3 | Aramark | MEHRA SANJEEV K | $552,926,716 |
| 4 | Aramark | ABBRECHT TODD M | $552,781,629 |
| 5 | Burlington Stores, Inc. | Patrick Tricia | $550,857,450 |
| 6 | Burlington Stores, Inc. | HITCH JORDAN | $550,857,450 |
| 7 | Burlington Stores, Inc. | BEKENSTEIN JOSHUA | $550,857,450 |
| 8 | GOOGLE INC. | Brin Sergey | $542,622,259 |
| 9 | GOOGLE INC. | Page Lawrence | $538,428,550 |
| 10 | WEST CORP | Grattan Laura A. | $535,462,310 |
| 11 | WEST CORP | OBERG SOREN | $535,462,310 |
| 12 | WEST CORP | DINOVI ANTHONY | $535,462,310 |
| 13 | VWR Corp | SULLIVAN TIMOTHY P | $464,232,000 |
| 14 | VWR Corp | ALEXOS NICHOLAS W | $464,232,000 |
| 15 | Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. | Humphrey David | $439,806,988 |
| 16 | CARNIVAL CORP | ARISON MICKY MEIR | $433,700,000 |
| 17 | CARNIVAL PLC | ARISON MICKY MEIR | $433,700,000 |
| 18 | Aramark | BARR DAVID | $419,789,684 |
| 19 | Arista Networks, Inc. | 2010 David R Cheriton Irrevocable Trust | $405,972,368 |
| 20 | Paycom Software, Inc. | TRAYNOR SEAN | $371,831,532 |
| 21 | Paycom Software, Inc. | CARSON RUSSELL L | $368,256,532 |
| 22 | LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT | RACHESKY MARK H MD | $349,206,860 |
| 23 | Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. | LISTER THOMAS H | $344,354,536 |
| 24 | GoPro, Inc. | MARKS MICHAEL E | $286,140,563 |
| 25 | FAMILY DOLLAR STORES INC | LEVINE HOWARD R | $278,809,852 |
| 26 | TWITTER, INC. | Williams Evan Clark | $275,037,833 |
| 27 | China Biologic Products, Inc. | Li David Hui | $265,227,375 |
| 28 | CDW Corp | FINNEGAN PAUL J | $258,447,396 |
| 29 | BEST BUY CO INC | SCHULZE RICHARD M | $253,690,144 |
| 30 | MBIA INC | CARNEY SEAN | $237,892,500 |
| 31 | CDW Corp | CREAMER GLENN M | $228,506,191 |
| 32 | Continental Building Products, Inc. | GRAYKEN JOHN P | $225,661,339 |
| 33 | CBS CORP | MOONVES LESLIE | $210,033,068 |
| 34 | AUTONATION, INC. | LAMPERT EDWARD S | $197,626,363 |
| 35 | NATIONAL PENN BANCSHARES INC | Martin Michael E. | $197,127,435 |
| 36 | Quintiles Transnational Holdings | Gordon Christopher R | $192,723,824 |
| 37 | Quintiles Transnational Holdings | CONNAUGHTON JOHN | $192,723,824 |
| 38 | Paycom Software, Inc. | Scully Thomas | $184,664,516 |
| 39 | Paycom Software, Inc. | Solomon Christopher | $184,342,766 |
| 40 | Paycom Software, Inc. | ANDERSON BRUCE K | $184,128,266 |
Once you weed out the Wall Street insiders on the list like Goldman, Thomas H Lee, Madison Deerborne, and Welsh Carson, the list narrows quickly to fewer than 20 individuals out of the top 200 we examined.
This list includes Micky Arison, founder of Carnival Cruise Lines and owner of the Miami Heat, Dollar Family Stores founder Howard Levine, Ev Williams of Twitter fame, and Les Monroves, the head honcho at CBS.
Some interesting observations just looking at these 19 insiders:
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Nine of the 19 are from tech, with 2 each from media, retail, travel and finance.
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Thirteen of the 19 are founders or cofounders of the companies whose stock they have been selling.
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All but two, Sergey Brin and Chris Stolte, have served in the role of CEO.
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All except one, Safra Catz, are men. Ms. Catz serves as co-CEO at Oracle Corporation where she has worked since 1999 and been a board member since 2001.
| Rank | Company | Insider | Amount US$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MICROSOFT CORP | GATES WILLIAM H III | $717,407,400 |
| 2 | GOOGLE INC. | Brin Sergey | $542,622,259 |
| 3 | GOOGLE INC. | Page Lawrence | $538,428,550 |
| 4 | CARNIVAL CORP | ARISON MICKY MEIR | $433,700,000 |
| 5 | FAMILY DOLLAR STORES INC | LEVINE HOWARD R | $278,809,852 |
| 6 | TWITTER, INC. | Williams Evan Clark | $275,037,833 |
| 7 | BEST BUY CO INC | SCHULZE RICHARD M | $253,690,144 |
| 8 | CBS CORP | MOONVES LESLIE | $210,033,068 |
| 9 | Diamond Resorts International, Inc. | Cloobeck Stephen J | $176,469,679 |
| 10 | Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc. | GILLINGS DENNIS B PH D | $162,327,527 |
| 11 | ORACLE CORP | CATZ SAFRA | $159,810,750 |
| 12 | SCHWAB CHARLES CORP | SCHWAB CHARLES R | $153,044,943 |
| 13 | NETFLIX INC | HASTINGS REED | $123,234,890 |
| 14 | Marcus & Millichap, Inc. | MARCUS GEORGE M | $121,571,500 |
| 15 | Graham Holdings Co | GRAHAM DONALD | $120,022,049 |
| 16 | Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. | Dundon Thomas G. | $110,247,075 |
| 17 | ServiceNow, Inc. | LUDDY FREDERIC B | $108,139,683 |
| 18 | Tableau Software Inc | Stolte Chris | $105,709,852 |
| 19 | SALESFORCE COM INC | Benioff Marc | $102,418,267 |