CEO Splashes $92M on Own Stock

The biggest insider story this week belongs across the Atlantic. Florentino Perez Rodriguez, Chairman and CEO of ACS, filed purchases totalling over $92 million in his own company. The filings, reported on August 10, cover eight separate trades between July 29 and August 7. He bought 730,000 shares in total. That is a rare show of conviction from a sitting CEO — buying aggressively across 10 consecutive trading days.

On the sell side, board-level investor Keith Meister filed exits from ILMN worth $148 million across just two days. The 741,127 shares were sold on August 4 and 5. Meister holds a board seat at Illumina through his asset management firm. The scale of the exit — filed August 6 — is a clear signal of reduced confidence at the top.

At LTH, Life Time Group's founder and CEO Bahram Akradi filed a sale of $19.5 million worth of shares on July 31. The disclosure landed August 4.

On the buying side, JNJ CEO Joaquin Duato was also active — but on the wrong side. He filed a sale of $10.8 million on August 7, covering trades made August 5.

The ACS buying spree stands out most. Eight purchases in ten days, each filed together, suggest a deliberate accumulation strategy — not routine diversification.