Huang Renxun cashed out $95 million worth of NVIDIA stocks in a week, while CEOs of other chip companies are also selling their own stocks

Top executives frequently reduce their holdings, causing NVIDIA's stock price to plummet, with the deepest consecutive decline exceeding 12% in three days. In addition, executives of other chip stocks such as Micron Technology, Qualcomm, and Coherent are also selling their own shares. Among the CEOs in the chip industry, NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang is the one who has sold the most shares.

After cashing out 720,000 shares, Jensen Huang can still cash out 5.28 million shares by March 2025

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents, Jensen Huang, through the "10b5-1 Rule Trading Plan" adopted on March 14, accumulated a total of 720,000 shares of NVIDIA stock from June 13 to 21, cashing out $94.6 million, with an average selling price of $131.44 per share.

After this transaction, Jensen Huang holds 80.7 million shares of NVIDIA stock in his personal account. In addition, he also controls 605 million shares through trusts, holds 49 million shares through partnerships, and holds 132 million shares of NVIDIA stock through other trust methods.

It is reported that when submitting the sales plan, Jensen Huang originally planned to sell no more than 600,000 shares of NVIDIA stock. However, this plan was made before the company implemented a 10-for-1 stock split, which took effect after the market closed on June 7. Based on the adjusted calculation after the stock split, his sales plan now covers 6 million shares of stock. Currently, Jensen Huang has sold 720,000 shares, which means he will sell an additional 5.28 million shares, and this plan will continue until March 2025.

In addition, NVIDIA's CFO Colette Kress and other executives, including Executive Vice President Deborah Shoquist, have also been reducing their holdings and cashing out, involving amounts exceeding tens of millions of dollars.

Data from Washington Service shows that excluding the impact of the 1-for-10 stock split on June 10, NVIDIA's executives and directors have collectively sold approximately 770,000 shares of stock, cashing out over $700 million, equivalent to about 5.1 billion RMB. Since NVIDIA announced its first-quarter results on May 22, more than one-third of insiders have chosen to sell their shares, setting a new high in recent years for the speed of selling.

It is worth noting that Jensen Huang's selling plan was announced as early as the end of March this year. At that time, NVIDIA mentioned in its quarterly financial report that Jensen Huang would sell up to 600,000 shares of stock by the end of March 2025 through the 10b5-1 stock sale plan. Market analysts point out that the shares sold by Jensen Huang this time are part of his executive compensation package, including Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) and Performance Stock Units (PSUs), which is a common practice for CEOs under certain conditions.

Public information shows that executives and internal personnel often know some undisclosed important information in advance due to the nature of their positions, which may affect the price of the company's stock To prevent insiders from using such information for unfair trading, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allows executives and insiders to establish the so-called "10b5-1 plans".

These plans must be established before insiders have any knowledge of any material non-public information, so Huang Renxun and other executives use these pre-set trading plans to eliminate suspicions of trading on non-public information. Once established, these plans will automatically execute trades when certain conditions are met, such as reaching preset levels of stock price and trading volume.

In September last year, Huang Renxun reduced his holdings of 237,500 shares of NVIDIA through such pre-set trading plans, cashing out a total of $110 million, with an average selling price of $463.95 per share (pre-split).

Executives of Micron, Qualcomm, and Coherent have all increased their selling amounts compared to last year

It is reported that Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO of Micron Technology, also conducted large-scale selling this year, from January to June, he sold a total of 457,280 shares through option plans, cashing out a total of $52 million, with an average selling price of $113.65 per share. So far this year, Micron's stock price has surged by 64%, and with the strong growth of the company's stock price, Mehrotra's average selling price has risen from $82 at the beginning of the year to around $152 in mid-June.

Mehrotra's selling quantity and amount have significantly increased compared to last year. In 2023, he sold 342,000 shares at an average price of $74.57 per share, with a total cash-out amount of $25.5 million.

Furthermore, Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm, sold a total of 40,500 shares from January to May, cashing out $6.9 million, with an average selling price of $169.92 per share. Qualcomm's stock price has surged by 47% so far this year, and Amon's average selling price has risen from around $150 in January to $190 in mid-May.

His most recent sale was in December 2021, when he sold 5,400 shares at a price of $189.50 through a planned transaction, cashing out a total of $1.02 million.

Additionally, Vincent "Chuck" D. Mattera Jr., CEO of Coherent, has been serving as the company's chairman since 2021. In February this year, he informed the company's board that he had been working at the company for 20 years, the last 8 of which as CEO, and he planned to retire once a successor was found.

However, informing the board of his retirement did not stop Mattera from selling shares, from March to May this year, Mattera has sold 15,000 shares of Coherent through trading plans, cashing out $846,700, with an average selling price of $56.45 per share. **According to Mattera's trading plan adopted on December 7, 2021, he plans to sell up to 65,000 shares of Coherent stock by the end of 2024, and use stock options to additionally purchase and sell up to 128,620 shares of stock.

In 2023, Mattera executed a series of planned trades in June, selling 61,000 shares of stock at a price of $54 per share, totaling $3.3 million in cash. As we enter 2024, Coherent's stock price has already achieved a significant 65% growth.

On June 3, the company announced the new CEO, Jim Anderson, who previously served as President and CEO of Lattice Semiconductor. With Mattera's retirement and departure from the board, he is no longer considered an insider and therefore no longer required to disclose his trading activities on Coherent stock to regulatory authorities