Hopper Jonathan Mark 4

What Happened
Jonathan Mark Hopper, Vericel’s Chief Medical Officer, exercised/converted a total of 20,000 shares on June 26, 2026 and sold 10,000 of those shares the same day. The filing shows two exercises of 5,000 shares at $29.82 (total cost $298,200) and two exercises of 5,000 shares at $0 (derivative conversions). The 10,000 shares sold were disposed in two open-market transactions at $45.00 each, generating total proceeds of $450,000. The sales were effected under an automatic Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-06-26 (Form 4 filed 2026-06-30). Filing appears timely (within required two business days).
• Exercises/conversions (code M): 20,000 shares acquired — 10,000 at $29.82 (paid $298,200), 10,000 at $0 (derivative conversion).
• Sales (code S): 10,000 shares sold in the open market at $45.00, proceeds $225,000 + $225,000 = $450,000.
• Sales were automatic under a Rule 10b5-1 plan (Footnote F2).
• Footnote F1: some shares relate to the company’s 2015 Employee Stock Purchase Plan and were transacted under Rule 16b-3 exemptions.
• Footnote F3: the underlying options referenced vest in equal quarterly installments (options cover 30,000 shares with first vesting on 5/17/2023).
• Shares owned following the transactions were not specified in the provided summary.

Context

• This filing shows option exercises and partial immediate sale of shares. The presence of same-day sales and the 10b5-1 disclosure indicate the sales were preplanned under an automatic trading plan, not necessarily an ad-hoc decision.
• Exercises increase insider-held shares before the sales; purchases/exercises can be viewed as a stronger signal than routine sales, but do not by themselves explain motivation.