The biggest insider sales of the last 90 days, without the plans, the taxes and the funds

Insider selling looks enormous in any 90-day window, and most of it means little. From July 4 to October 1, 2026, executives and directors of U.S.-listed companies reported $25.3 billion of sales on Form 4. Here is what that number was made of, set against the $2.02 billion they bought on the open market in the same period.

Why the raw ranking misleads

Sort the stocks by total insider selling and the top of the list is mostly not people. At Dell, $1.04 billion of the $1.10 billion was sold by Silver Lake, the investment firm with a seat on the board. At Birkenstock, all $1.10 billion was a block sale through banks by L Catterton. Alliance Laundry ($590 million) was a public offering by BDT, and Primo Brands ($497 million) was One Rock, a fund. These filings appear under a director’s name, but the money belongs to a fund. Snowflake’s $479 million was almost all 10b5-1 plans.

The ranking that means something

“Price, 90 days” is the October 1 close against the close at the start of the window, not the change since each sale. “Without a plan” means the Form 4 does not mark the sale as made under a 10b5-1 trading plan and its notes do not describe it as a tax sale — so it was a decision made at the time, though the filing never says why. A “director” is a board member.

Two of the names have longer stories on this site. Nvidia director Mark Stevens sold through his family trust in 16 Form 4 lines; our Nvidia profile shows his sales over a full year, $1.50 billion. John Hess joined Chevron’s board when Chevron bought Hess in 2025; his sales are part of the $633 million of Chevron insider sales described in ExxonMobil vs. Chevron. Over the same 90 days, Chevron’s chief executive Mike Wirth sold $64.6 million without a plan.

Selling is not a signal by itself

Executives sell to diversify, pay for houses, fund foundations or cover taxes, and the filings rarely say which. The same line usually attributed to Peter Lynch about buying makes the point: insiders sell for many reasons, but buy for only one. In this window the stocks with the biggest personal sales mostly rose. Purchases are covered in our companion article on the biggest insider purchases of the last 90 days, and the insider activity page updates both every day. Not investment advice.