Form 144 Trends in Q2 2023: New Names in the Sale Game

Filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a Form 144 is filed under the circumstances that an Insider wants to sell restricted securities or control securities. The form is filed if the Insider of a company wishes to sell a large worth of securities. The main purpose of a Form 144 filing is to determine whether the shares or securities being sold are not harmful to investors.

2iQ Analysts found and compiled a dataset which features all the Form 144s filed recently with the SEC. Previously, our data covered the top issuers in the first quarter of 2023. The recently ended second quarter saw minimal shift in data findings, but it appears that we have new names among insiders filing to load off their company stakes.

Top Brokers:

Brokers are usually an organization or an agent that is responsible for the transfer of assets between a buyer and seller in the market.

To ensure compliance with the SEC, a broker, though not necessary, is beneficial when an insider during a Form 144 filing. The first quarter of 2023 saw some of the biggest financial institutions as the top brokers in demand.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC - 18.67% of Forms from April to June 2023 were filed via Goldman Sachs.
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC - 15.86% of Insiders.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC - A wealth and asset division of Morgan Stanley & Co, this firm brokered almost 15.43%.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC - Operating under its parent organization, J.P. Morgan Securities brokered 10.40% of the total firms filed in the second quarter.
Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC - Serving as a broker for almost 6.22% in the quarter, the firm brokered almost double its percentage of forms in the first three months of 2023.
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc - The wealth management division run by the Bank of America, Merrill Lynch is a new name in the quarter’s most-in-demand brokers. The firm brokered almost 3.30% of forms.
UBS Financial Services Inc - The Switzerland-based bank served as a broker in 2.99% of forms filed.
Lastly, almost 27.13% of all the Form 144s filed were by other brokers.

Top Issuers:

Walmart Inc (WMT:US)

Interestingly a familiar name in the Form 144 arena, Walmart Inc’s insiders filed forms to sell as much as 11,845,901 shares from April to June 2023. The retail company has a current Market Cap of almost $416.47 billion and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ‘WMT’.

On May 18, the retail company disclosed its FY Q1 2024 results, featuring a 7.6% rise in revenues YoY. Currently priced at $154.85, WMT’s value is 7.83% higher year-to-date.

Oracle Corp (ORCL:US)

Oracle Corp is a Technology company offering cloud software solutions and possesses a current Market Cap of almost $321.58 billion. Insiders at the company filed to sell 12,846,066 shares. In all, these ORCL shares were valued at almost $1.4 billion.

Currently valued at $118.89, ORCL stock closed almost 9% higher post-weekend when it disclosed its FY Q4 2023 and fiscal full-year earnings on June 12. Oracle reported an almost 23.1% rise in revenues. Adding to this surprising twist, the stock is trading almost 42.01% higher YTD.

AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC:US)

A distributor of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, Amerisource boasts a current Market Cap of nearly $38.8 billion. The company’s insiders filed to sell almost 6,846,539 ABC shares, amounting to a total value of nearly $1.2 billion.

Shares of the pharma company are presently trading 16.95% higher YTD and are trading rather well presently. This, of course, places the multiple Form 144 filings in a different light.

Dynatrace Inc (DT:US)

Another stock climbing the price ladder, Dynatrace Inc is an American technology company that mainly operates a security platform and its Market Cap is valued at $15.8 billion. In a year where technology stocks are racing ahead of expectations, Dynatrace’s insiders filed to sell 18,284,946 shares, worth almost $962.1 million.

DT stock surged by almost 43.36% YTD, and Dynatrace is set to reveal its FY Q1 2024 results in early August. It previously revealed a 27% rise in revenues in its Q4 and fiscal 2023 full-year report.

ZoomInfo Technologies Inc (ZI:US)

Not to be confused with another well-known tech company of the same name, ZoomInfo is a software company that supplies businesses and individuals with data, and their main product - a commercial search engine. With a Market Cap of almost $11.0 billion, ZoomInfo’s insiders filed Forms 144s worth $657.3 million. All in all, these filings were for 24,589,434 shares.

Trading almost 1.87% lower YTD, ZoomInfo rather contrastingly disclosed a 24% YoY rise in revenues in its Q1 2023 results as announced on May 01. The tech stock last closed at $28.89 in the recent trading period.

Top CEOs

Short for Chief Executive Officer, a CEO is the individual standing highest in any firm’s hierarchy. When a CEO of any firm makes a move related to business, it often reveals some interesting facts related to the company.

But when a CEO makes a move in the stock of that company, now that is a sight to capture. Here are the CEOs who placed at the top in planning to sell company shares:

A genius of corporate operations and sales, Safra A. Catz, the CEO of Oracle (ORCL:US) joined the firm back in 1999 and tops our list of CEOs with form 144s to sell nearly $468M amounting to 5M shares.
The second on our list is an internationally recognized security expert, author, entrepreneur, and speaker. Mr. George Kurtz is the President, CEO, and co-founder of CrowdStrike (CRWD:US) and has more than 30 years of experience in the security space. He aimed to sell around $296M worth of holdings comprising 2.165M shares.
A renowned name in the corporate sphere Stephane J. Bancel, the CEO of Moderna Inc (MRNA:US) yet again remains dominant when it comes to laying off his holdings. As compared to our report published in the previous quarter, Mr. Bancel plans to sell nearly $238M less with this quarter's sale plan of nearly 987K shares valuing more than $131M
A guru of sales operations and business development, Mr. Nikesh Arora serves as the CEO of Palo Alto Networks (PANW:US) and ranks fourth on our list with plans to sell almost 610K shares amounting to above $131M.
A virtuoso of the financial world, Michael J. Arougheti once more becomes a part of our list with intentions to sell nearly $119M worth of his holdings in Ares Management Corp (ARES:US), totaling 1.43M shares. A jump of around $79M worth of stock in comparison to the previous quarter.

Top Shareholders

Any individual, organization, or corporation that owns at least one share in a company is referred to as a "stockholder" or a "shareholder" of that company. This term is valid for both shareholders of either publicly listed or privately owned companies.

By obtaining shares of a company, a shareholder possesses a certain level of ownership in that firm, receiving certain perks such as dividends, limited liability, and a level of influence in the company's policies and decision-making.

Below we are going to name the most prominent shareholders of companies who laid off their shares in their respective firms by filling the most Form 144s in the previous quarter:

The shareholder who sold the highest stakes in their respective firm in the last quarter was the Walton Family Holdings Trust. The Walton family is an American family whose collective fortune derived from Walmart makes them among the richest families in the USA. The family holdings planned to sell nearly 11.74 million shares of Walmart Inc (WMT:US) valuing more than $1.79 billion.
The second shareholder on our list is a public listed company itself. A global innovator of the retail pharmacy industry Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA:US) disclosed to get rid of nearly 6.78 million shares of the wholesale giant AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC:US) in Q2 2023. The total value of these shares sums up to around $1.18 Billion.
Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity investment firm that specializes in the tech world. In the last quarter, the firm sold around $940 million worth of stock in the software firm Dynatrace Inc (DT:US). The investment firm holds a 20% ownership in the tech firm and disclosed selling nearly 17.85 million shares.
Executive Chairman of the Oracle Group (ORCL:US), billionaire business magnate Lawrence Joseph Ellison aka Larry Ellison filled Form 144s disclosing his plans to sell nearly 7 million shares of the software behemoth in the previous quarter. The total value of these shares was around $854.28 million.
In the last quarter, the multinational private equity and financial services corporation The Carlyle Group Inc (CG:US) planned to drop nearly $598.34 million worth of its shares in the software and data giant ZoomInfo Technologies Inc (ZI:US). A total of more than 22.38 million shares were taken into consideration.
A private equity investor and philanthropist, Joshua Jordan Harris made it public last quarter that he was planning on getting rid of his shares in Apollo Global Management Inc (APO:US), an American private equity firm. He revealed to sell more than 7.29 million shares, with a value of nearly $498.90 million at his former firm.
One of the world's largest private philanthropic foundations and the largest endowments in the USA, Lilly Endowment Inc disclosed to sell nearly 1.10 million shares of around $474.44 million worth of the pharma giant Eli Lilly and Company (LLY:US). Lilly Endowment was formed back in 1937.