Aiken Jason W 4

What Happened

• Jason W. Aiken, Executive Vice President of General Dynamics (GD), exercised stock options on 2026-02-19, converting a total of 31,020 option shares into common stock (16,375 and 14,645 shares). The exercises had exercise prices of $191.71 and $223.93, with total cash paid of about $6.42M. To cover the exercise price and tax liability, 24,598 shares were surrendered/sold (12,631 and 11,967 shares) for total proceeds of about $8.69M. Net shares retained after those withholdings were 6,422.
• Transaction codes: M = option exercise/conversion; F = shares withheld/sold to cover exercise price or tax withholding. The filing shows the exercised derivatives were removed (derivative dispositions at $0), consistent with converting options into shares.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-02-19 (Form 4 filed 2026-02-23).
• Exercises: 16,375 shares @ $191.71 = $3,139,251; 14,645 shares @ $223.93 = $3,279,455 (total exercised shares = 31,020; total exercise cash paid ≈ $6,418,706).
• Withholding/sales to cover costs/taxes: 12,631 shares @ $353.19 = $4,461,080; 11,967 shares @ $352.99 = $4,224,231 (total shares surrendered/sold = 24,598; total proceeds ≈ $8,685,311).
• Net shares retained from this activity: 31,020 acquired − 24,598 surrendered = 6,422 shares.
• Footnotes: F1 notes included 401(k) plan activity since the last report; F2 and F3 describe vesting schedules (portions became exercisable in 2019–2021). No other special plan (e.g., 10b5‑1) or late‑filing flag is shown in the summary.
• Shares owned after transaction: not specified in the provided filing summary.

Context

• This was a routine option exercise with shares withheld/sold to cover the exercise price and tax withholding (commonly called a cashless exercise/withholding). Such transactions are administrative and do not necessarily indicate a purchase or sale motivated by a view on the stock—facts only, no speculation.
• For retail investors: purchases (out‑of‑pocket buys) can be more indicative of insider confidence than option exercises followed by share withholding; here Aiken retained a modest net position (6,422 shares) after covering costs/taxes.