Introduction

This page provides a comprehensive analysis of the known insider trading history of James R Sappington. Insiders are officers, directors, or significant investors in a company. It is illegal for insiders to make trades in their companies based on specific, non-public information. This does not mean it is illegal for them to make any trades in their own companies. However, they must report all trades to the SEC via a Form 4. Despite these restrictions, academic research suggests that insiders - in general - tend to outperform the market in their own companies.

Average Trade Profitability

The average trade profitability is the average return of all the open market purchases made by the insider in the last three years. To calculate this, we examine every open-market, unplanned purchase made by the insider, excluding all trades that were marked as part of a 10b5-1 trading plan. We then calculate the average performance of those trades over 3, 6, and 12 months, averaging each of those durations to generate a final performance metric for each trade. Finally, we average all of the performance metrics to calculate a performance metric for the insider. This list only includes insiders that have made at least three trades in the last two years.

If this insiders trade profitability is "N/A", then the insider either has not made any open-market purchases in the last three years, or the trades they’ve made are too recent to calculate a reliable performance metric.

Update Frequency: Daily

See the list of most profitable insider traders.

Companies with Reported Insider Positions

The SEC filings indicate James R Sappington has reported holdings or trades in the following companies:

Security Title Latest Reported Holdings
US:STFC / State Auto Financial Corp. Director 0
US:MCD / McDonald's Corporation EVP - Ops & Tech Sys 0
How to Interpret the Charts

The following charts show the stock performance of securities subsequent to each open-market, non-planned trade made by James R Sappington. Non-planned trade are trades that were not made as part of a 10b5-1 trading plan. The stock performance is charted as cumulative percent change in share price. For example, if an insider trade was made on January 1, 2019, the chart will show the daily percent change of the security to the present day. If the share price were to go from $10 to $15 during this time, the cumulative percent change in share price would be 50%. A change in price from $10 to $20 would be 100%, and a change in price of $10 to $5 would be -50%.

Ultimately, we are trying to determine how closely the insider’s trades correlate to excess returns (positive or negative) in the share price in order to see if the insider is timing their trades to profit from insider information. Consider the situation where an insider was doing this. In this situation, we would expect either (a) positive returns after purchases, or (b) negative returns after sales. In the case of (a), the PURCHASE chart would show a series of upwardly sloping curves, indicating positive returns after each purchase transaction. In the case of (b), the SALE chart would show a series of downward sloping curves, indicating negative returns after each sale transaction.

However, this alone is not enough to draw conclusions. If, for example, the share price of the company was in a non-cyclical climb over many years, then we would expect all the post-purchase plots to be upwardly sloping. Likewise, non-cyclical declines over many years would result in downward sloping post-trade plots. Neither of these charts would suggest insider trading activity.

The strongest indicator would be a situation where the share price was extremely cyclical, and there were both positive signals in the PURCHASE chart and negative plots on the SALE chart. This situation would be highly suggestive of an insider that was timing trades to their financial advantage.

Insider Trading History

This table shows the complete list of insider trades made by James R Sappington as disclosed to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

File Date Tran Date Form Ticker Security Code 10b5-1 Shares Remaining Shares Percent
Change
Share
Price
Tran
Value
Remaining
Value
2020-03-12 3 STFC State Auto Financial CORP
Common Shares without par value
0
2018-03-20 2018-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Restricted Stock Units
M - Exercise -3,346 0 -100.00
2018-03-20 2018-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
F - Taxes -2,965 11,420 -20.61 162.36 -481,397 1,854,151
2018-03-20 2018-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 6,692 14,385 86.99
2017-10-26 2017-10-25 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
M - Exercise -8,046 0 -100.00
2017-10-26 2017-10-25 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
S - Sale -8,046 7,693 -51.12 165.00 -1,327,590 1,269,345
2017-10-26 2017-10-25 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 8,046 15,739 104.59 100.05 805,002 1,574,687
2017-04-28 2017-04-27 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
M - Exercise -6,997 8,046 -46.51
2017-04-28 2017-04-27 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
S - Sale -6,997 7,693 -47.63 141.70 -991,476 1,090,099
2017-04-28 2017-04-27 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 6,997 14,690 90.95 100.05 700,050 1,469,734
2017-04-28 2017-04-26 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
M - Exercise -6,915 0 -100.00
2017-04-28 2017-04-26 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
S - Sale -6,915 7,693 -47.34 141.08 -975,583 1,085,345
2017-04-28 2017-04-26 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 6,915 14,608 89.89 75.93 525,056 1,109,185
2017-03-10 2017-03-08 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Restricted Stock Units
A - Award 4,294 4,294
2017-03-10 2017-03-08 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
A - Award 33,034 33,034
2017-02-14 2017-02-12 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Restricted Stock Units
M - Exercise -1,845 0 -100.00
2017-02-14 2017-02-12 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
F - Taxes -604 7,693 -7.28 125.82 -75,995 967,933
2017-02-14 2017-02-12 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 1,845 8,297 28.60
2016-11-16 2016-11-14 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
M - Exercise -8,298 0 -100.00
2016-11-16 2016-11-14 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
S - Sale -8,298 6,452 -56.26 118.08 -979,828 761,852
2016-11-16 2016-11-14 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 8,298 14,750 128.61 63.25 524,848 932,938
2016-02-16 2016-02-13 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Restricted Stock Units
M - Exercise -1,463 0 -100.00
2016-02-16 2016-02-13 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
F - Taxes -455 6,452 -6.59 117.93 -53,658 760,884
2016-02-16 2016-02-13 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 1,463 6,907 26.87
2016-02-16 2016-02-11 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Restricted Stock Units
A - Award 4,712 4,712
2016-02-16 2016-02-11 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
A - Award 31,411 31,411
2016-02-02 2016-01-29 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
M - Exercise -11,036 0 -100.00
2016-02-02 2016-01-29 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
S - Sale -7,827 5,444 -58.98 124.25 -972,505 676,417
2016-02-02 2016-01-29 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 11,036 13,271 493.78 57.08 629,935 757,509
2015-08-07 2015-08-05 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Phantom Stock
I - Other 1,703 2,096 434.19 99.80 170,000 209,154
2015-03-18 2015-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Restricted Stock Units
A - Award 3,346 3,346
2015-03-18 2015-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
A - Award 19,674 19,674
2015-03-18 2015-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Options (Right to Buy)
M - Exercise 11,123 0 -100.00
2015-03-18 2015-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
S - Sale -11,123 2,235 -83.27 97.35 -1,082,784 217,569
2015-03-18 2015-03-16 4 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
M - Exercise 11,123 13,358 497.67 56.67 630,340 756,998
2015-03-10 3 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
4,470
2015-03-10 3 MCD MCDONALDS CORP
Common Stock
4,470
P
Open market or private purchase of non-derivative or derivative security
S
Open market or private sale of non-derivative or derivative security
A
Grant, award, or other acquisition of securities from the company (such as an option)
C
Conversion of derivative
D
Sale or transfer of securities back to the company
F
Payment of exercise price or tax liability using portion of securities received from the company
G
Gift of securities by or to the insider
K
Equity swaps and similar hedging transactions
M
Exercise or conversion of derivative security received from the company (such as an option)
V
A transaction voluntarily reported on Form 4
J
Other (accompanied by a footnote describing the transaction)