Form 4 is the SEC filing that officers, directors, and owners of more than 10% of a company's registered equity must submit whenever their holdings change through a purchase, sale, grant, or option exercise. Formally the Statement of Changes in Beneficial Ownership, it is required under Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is generally due within two business days of the transaction.
Because that reporting window is so short, Form 4 filings are close to a real-time record of what a company's insiders are doing with their own shares.
Each filing reports transactions in Table I for direct equity such as common stock, or Table II for derivative securities such as options, and tags every transaction with a single-letter code — P for an open-market purchase, S for a sale, A for a compensation-plan grant, F for shares withheld to cover tax on a vesting event. The code, not the dollar value, is what separates a discretionary economic decision from a routine, plan-driven event. For a field-by-field walkthrough of the form, see the guide linked below; for all 20 codes decoded, see the GeminIQ guide to Form 4 transaction codes.
A: Officers, directors, and any person or entity that beneficially owns more than 10% of a class of a company's registered equity securities must file a Form 4 whenever a reportable transaction changes their ownership.
A: A Form 4 is generally due within two business days of the transaction date, a deadline set by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Before that act, insiders had up to 40 days to report.
A: The transaction code is a single letter in Table I or Table II that categorizes the type of transaction — for example, P for an open-market purchase or S for an open-market sale — and indicates whether it reflects a voluntary economic decision or a routine, compensation-driven event.
Further Reading: How to Read SEC Form 4: Insider Buying and Selling Explained
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