Pizzie Nick 4

What Happened

• Nick Pizzie, Chief Financial Officer of Axsome Therapeutics (AXSM), exercised stock options and immediately sold the resulting shares. He exercised 33,000 options at $3.50 per share (cost $115,500) and sold 33,000 shares in the open market at a weighted average price of $240.09 for total gross proceeds of $7,922,970. After subtracting the exercise cost, the approximate net proceeds were $7,807,470.
• The activity was reported on Form 4 for transactions dated 2026-06-09 and appears to reflect a routine option exercise followed by a sale.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-06-09.
• Exercise: 33,000 shares acquired at $3.50 each (total $115,500) — footnote F1 notes these were options held >8 years and exercised prior to the 10‑year expiration.
• Sale: 33,000 shares sold (open market) at a weighted average price of $240.09 for $7,922,970; sale prices ranged $236.46–$242.35 (F4).
• Additional derivative entry: a 33,000-share M-line reported at $0.00 (reflects conversion/transfer related to the option exercise and the subsequent sale — F3).
• The sale was executed pursuant to a pre‑approved 10b5‑1 trading plan, which the filing says has been completed (F2).
• Filing date: 2026-06-09 (same day as the reported transactions); filing appears timely.
• Filing notes additional holdings may include ESPP purchases and shares held as custodian for children in UTMA accounts (F5, F6). The Form 4 did not list a specific post-transaction total share count.

Context

• This is a common pattern: an insider exercises long-held options and sells the underlying shares under a prearranged plan. The sale locks in proceeds well above the exercise cost; it is procedural rather than an explicit statement about company outlook.
• For retail investors: purchases can be more informative about insider confidence, while sales following option exercises are often routine and used to monetize long-standing equity.