Blankenship Charles P 4

What Happened
Charles P. Blankenship, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Woodward, exercised a total of 10,000 stock options (transaction code M) and concurrently sold 10,000 shares in open-market transactions (transaction code S) on March 5–6, 2026. He exercised 2,625 options at a $98.34 strike (cost $258,143) and 7,375 options at an $83.24 strike (cost $613,895), for total exercise outlay of $872,038. The open-market sales generated aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $3,797,942. Because the exercised shares were immediately sold, this was effectively a cashless exercise followed by sale (net proceeds before taxes/fees ≈ $2.93M).

Key Details

• Dates: Exercises and sales occurred March 5 and March 6, 2026; Form 4 filed March 9, 2026 (timely).
• Exercise detail: 10,000 options exercised (2,625 @ $98.34; 7,375 @ $83.24).
• Sales: 10,000 shares sold in multiple open-market trades (aggregate proceeds ≈ $3,797,942). Sales on Mar 5 totaled ~5,000 shares; sales on Mar 6 totaled ~5,000 shares.
• Plan/footnotes: Sales were effected under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted Dec 2, 2025 (F1). Several footnotes (F2–F16) note that multiple same-day, same-way sales were aggregated and reported using weighted-average prices; detailed per-trade breakdowns are available on request.
• Options info: The filing includes option-series details/vesting schedules (see F18–F19).
• Shares owned after transaction: Not specified in the excerpt provided here — see the Form 4 filing for the reporting person’s post-transaction holdings and plan balances (F7, F17).
• Filing timeliness: Form 4 was filed on 2026-03-09 for transactions on 2026-03-05 and 2026-03-06; the filing appears timely under Form 4 rules.

Context

• This was not a purchase signaling additional insider accumulation; it was an exercise of vested options with immediate/near-immediate sale (cashless exercise), a common way for insiders to realize option value and cover exercise tax/costs.
• The presence of a 10b5-1 plan means sales were pre-authorized and executed according to that plan, which can reduce concerns about opportunistic timing but does not imply company endorsement.
• For full details (exact post-transaction holdings, option grant IDs, per-trade sale prices, and any tax-withholding), consult the full SEC Form 4 (Accession 0001193125-26-098796).