JPMorgan Chase’s top executives are making moves, and they are big enough to raise eyebrows. CFO Jeremy Barnum just slashed his holdings by 70 percent, selling 40,014 shares and dropping his stake from 58,000 to 18,017 shares. That is a significant reduction, and it does not follow his usual pattern of selling only after receiving stock awards. Over the past few years, Barnum typically sold about half of what he was granted, but this latest sale is a departure from that trend.
Barnum’s sale totaled over 10 million dollars, with shares sold at an average price of 250.77 dollars. While insider transactions do not always signal trouble, a CFO unloading this much stock in one go is worth noting. He could be freeing up capital for personal reasons, but the timing and scale of the sale make it hard to ignore.
Other executives followed suit. Linda Bammann, a board member and chair of the Risk Policy Committee, and Jennifer Piepszak, the company’s COO, both reduced their holdings by about nine percent. Bammann’s sale is particularly striking because it is her largest since 2013. Piepszak’s sale is more in line with her previous transactions, but she has made two other sales this year that were not tied to stock awards, which is unusual.
There are plenty of possible explanations for these moves. Executives often sell stock for personal financial planning, tax reasons or portfolio diversification. However, when the CFO, COO and a key risk policy figure all reduce their stakes at the same time, it is worth asking whether they see something coming.
JPMorgan Chase’s stock has been strong, trading near 250 dollars per share. The company’s earnings have been solid, with a 16.99 percent return on equity and a 20.96 percent net margin. Financial markets are unpredictable, and insiders often have a better sense of future risks than the average investor.
Fascinating how 2008 is repeating and the SEC is totally asleep. https://t.co/uTDV4EGcQe pic.twitter.com/iqZn5e7TXw
— Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) May 9, 2025
SOURCES:
https://www.insidertrades.com/jpmorgan-chase-co-stock/jeremy-barnum/