Vericel (VCEL) Director Kevin McLaughlin Exercises Options, Sells Shares

What Happened

• Kevin F. McLaughlin, a director of Vericel Corp (VCEL), exercised stock options and immediately sold shares on Aug 12, 2026.
• He exercised 7,000 option shares at $13.05 per share (cost $91,350) and sold 7,000 shares in the open market at $44.53 per share for gross proceeds of $311,710.
• The filing also reports an M-coded exercise/conversion of 7,000 shares at $0.00 (a derivative conversion reported with no cash paid in the Form 4).

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-08-12.
• Exercise: 7,000 shares @ $13.05 = $91,350 (code M); additional M-coded conversion of 7,000 shares @ $0.00 also reported.
• Sale: 7,000 shares @ $44.53 = $311,710 (code S).
• Sales were effected automatically under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by McLaughlin on May 12, 2025 (footnote F1).
• The exercised options were part of grants originally issued May 2, 2018 (options totaling 17,500 shares that vested monthly over one year, footnote F2).
• Shares owned after the reported transactions are not specified in the provided filing.
• Filing date: 2026-08-14 for transactions on 2026-08-12 — this appears to be a timely Form 4 (filed within the usual two-business-day reporting window).

Context

• Because McLaughlin exercised options and sold the same number of shares on the same day, this appears to be a cashless/near-immediate sale of exercised shares executed under an automatic trading plan — a common way insiders monetize option exercises without signaling a change in view on the company.
• These transactions were reported by a director (not a 10% owner). The 10b5-1 plan note indicates the sale was pre-scheduled rather than a discretionary trade made that day.