Executive Chairman And CEO Of Blackberry Trades $24M In Company Stock

John Chen, Executive Chairman And CEO at Blackberry BB, made a large buy and sell of company shares on November 3, according to a new SEC filing.

What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission states that John Chen exercised options to purchase 4,000,000 Blackberry shares for $0 on November 3. They then sold their shares on the same day in the open market. They sold at a price of $11.14 to raise a total of $24,762,482 from the stock sale.

Following the transaction, Chen still owns 6,002,344 shares of the company, worth $66,325,901.

Blackberry shares are trading up 0.0% at $11.05 at the time of this writing on Monday morning.

Why Insider Transactions Are Important

Insider transactions shouldn't be used primarily to make an investing decision, however an insider transaction can be an important factor in the investing decision.

In legal terms, an "insider" refers to any shareholder who owns at least 10% of a company. This can include executives in the c-suite and large hedge funds. These insiders are required to let the public know of their transactions via a Form 4 filing, which must be filed within two business days of the transaction.

When a company insider makes a new purchase, that is an indication that they expect the stock to rise.

Insider sells, on the other hand, can be made for a variety of reasons, and may not necessarily mean that the seller thinks the stock will go down.

Transaction Codes To Focus On

Investors prefer focusing on transactions that take place in the open market, indicated in Table I of the Form 4 filing. A P in Box 3 indicates a purchase, while S indicates a sale. Transaction code C indicates the conversion of an option, and transaction code A indicates the insider may have been forced to sell shares in order to receive compensation that had been promised upon being hired by the company.

Check Out The Full List Of Blackberry's Insider Trades.