President And CEO Of Essex Property Trust Trades $18M In Company Stock

Michael Schall, President And CEO at Essex Property Trust ESS, made a large buy and sell of company shares on October 28, according to a new SEC filing.

What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission states that Michael Schall exercised options to purchase 31,362 Essex Property Trust shares at a price of $240.61 per share for a total of $7,546,011 on October 28. They then sold their shares on the same day in the open market. They sold at prices ranging from $341.31 to $346.99 to raise a total of $10,779,676 from the stock sale.

Schall still owns a total of 45,729 shares of Essex Property Trust worth, $15,432,394.

Essex Property Trust shares are trading down 0.72% at $337.48 at the time of this writing on Monday morning.

The Importance of Insider Transactions

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.

Important Transaction Codes

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 Essex Property Trust's Insider Trades.