BFK Portfolio Manager Walter O'Connor Exercises Phantom Shares

What Happened

• Walter O'Connor, a portfolio manager at BlackRock Municipal Income Trust (BFK), had 171.528 phantom shares convert/vest and were disposed back to the issuer for cash on Jan 30, 2026. The filing shows a disposition price of $10.17 per share, producing total cash of $1,744. This was a cash settlement of a derivative/phantom-share award, not an open-market sale of common stock.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-01-30.
• Transaction codes: M (exercise/conversion of derivative) and D (disposition to issuer/cash settlement).
• Shares involved: 171.528 phantom shares; cash received reported as $1,744 (at $10.17 per share).
• Shares owned after transaction: not reported in this Form 4.
• Footnotes: F1 explains a phantom share is economically equivalent to one share and is payable in cash upon vesting; F2 notes these phantom shares were granted Jan 31, 2023 and vest in equal installments on each of the first three anniversaries of the grant date.
• Filing timeliness: Form filed Feb 3, 2026 for a Jan 30 transaction. Form 4s are normally due within two business days, so this filing appears to have been filed after the typical reporting window.

Context

• This was a cash-settled, routine vesting/payment of phantom shares (economic equivalent of shares) rather than an open-market sale or purchase of stock. The small cash amount (~$1.7k) suggests a routine vesting installment from the 2023 grant rather than a material insider trade.