Santos Esteban 4

What Happened

• Santos Esteban, Executive Vice President, Operations at Amgen, exercised options to acquire 54,792 shares (30,501 + 24,291) on Feb 26, 2026 and sold those shares the same day.
• Exercise details: 30,501 shares exercised at $162.60 (cost $4,959,463) and 24,291 shares exercised at $177.46 (cost $4,310,681) — total exercise cost $9,270,144.
• Sale details: 30,501 shares sold for $11,563,457 and 24,291 shares sold for $9,209,138, for total gross proceeds of $20,772,595 (average sale price ≈ $379.12/share per filing). Net proceeds (sales minus exercise costs) ≈ $11.50M.
• This is effectively a cashless exercise / immediate sale (sell-to-cover), a common insider action to exercise options and monetize them rather than a buy signal.

Key Details

• Transaction date: Feb 26, 2026; Form 4 filed Mar 2, 2026 (filed within the typical 2-business-day window).
• Exercise prices: $162.60 and $177.46; reported average sale price: $379.1173/share (footnote F2).
• Shares acquired via exercise: 54,792; shares sold: 54,792. Some derivative lines show $0.00 disposals—these reflect surrendered option shares in connection with the exercise (see footnote F1).
• Notable footnotes from the filing:
  • F1: Includes shares sold to cover the option exercise price and required withholding taxes (sell-to-cover).
  • F2: Average sale price of $379.1173 per share; detailed price breakdown available on request.
  • F3: Indicates dividend equivalents (624 DEs) are included in reported RSU-related amounts where applicable.
  • F4: Refers to shares or interests under the company 401(k) plan included elsewhere in the filing.
• Shares owned after the transaction: not specified in the provided excerpt of the filing.

Context

• For retail investors: this looks like a routine cashless exercise and immediate sale by an executive to cover exercise costs and taxes and to take proceeds — common practice and not necessarily a signal about company fundamentals.
• The filing is timely. No indication in the provided data that Santos is a 10% owner; this is executive-level trading reported on Form 4.