AvalonBay (AVB) CIO Matthew Birenbaum Receives Award, Disposes Shares

What Happened
Matthew H. Birenbaum, Chief Investment Officer of AvalonBay Communities (AVB), had a merger-related award and two issuer-directed dispositions on Aug 17, 2026. He was credited with 27,735 shares (award from performance-based restricted stock units, PSUs) at $0.00 per the Form 4. He also had a disposition to the issuer of 113,020.943 shares (priced $0.00 on the filing) and a derivative disposition of 17,458 shares (price listed as N/A). The $0.00 prices reflect conversion/disposition as part of the merger, not an open-market sale.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-08-17.
• Award: 27,735 shares acquired (PSUs deemed earned; Form 4 price = $0.00).
• Disposition: 113,020.943 AVB shares disposed to the issuer (Form 4 price = $0.00).
• Derivative disposition: 17,458 shares recorded as derivative (price N/A).
• Merger context: AVB combined with EQR (effective Aug 17, 2026); EQR changed its name to Vivmark Residential. At the Merger Effective Time each AVB share converted into the right to receive 2.793 EQR shares (the Exchange Ratio).
• Filing notes: PSUs were deemed earned at the greater of actual performance or target; options and awards were converted into EQR-equivalent awards per the merger terms. Form 4 shows $0 prices because the transactions were corporate-merger conversions; the filing does not list post-transaction total shares owned.

Context
These transactions are merger-related corporate actions (conversion of AVB holdings and PSU awards into the surviving company’s securities and/or issuer-directed dispositions), not routine open-market buys or sells. For reference (not reported on the Form 4), AVB closed at $184.06 and EQR closed at $65.97 on Aug 14, 2026; applying the AVB price to ~113,021 shares would imply a market value near $20.8M, but the Form 4 records $0 because value was determined by the merger exchange mechanics. Such filings typically reflect corporate restructuring and award conversions rather than an insider expressing a trading view.