HUGHES JAMES A 4

What Happened
James A. Hughes, CEO and director of Unity Bancorp (UNTY), exercised stock options and sold shares on Feb 18, 2026. He exercised 1,500 options with an exercise price of $8.95 (cost $13,425) and sold 1,500 shares in an open-market transaction at $54.50 per share, for proceeds of $81,750. The filing also shows a related derivative/option conversion for 1,500 shares recorded at $0.00 (no cash change reported).

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-02-18.
• Option exercise: 1,500 shares @ $8.95 = $13,425 (code M).
• Open-market sale: 1,500 shares @ $54.50 = $81,750 (code S).
• Additional derivative entry: 1,500 shares @ $0.00 reported as disposed (code M).
• Total beneficial ownership after transaction: 303,837 shares (per filing remarks).
• Footnotes of note:
  • F1: Breakdown of 173,013 common shares held across Shareworks, Computershare, brokerage, and 401(k).
  • F2: 41,824 restricted/dividend-reinvested shares at Computershare (41,000 restricted + 824 DRIP).
  • F3: Prior vesting history listed (2017–2019).
  • F4: 89,000 stock options granted under various vesting schedules; all currently exercisable.
• Filing timeliness: no late-filing flag shown in the provided data.

Context
The same-day exercise and sale is consistent with a cashless exercise or a sale to cover exercise cost/taxes — the sequence (exercise at $8.95, sale at $54.50) resulted in meaningful gross proceeds. Insider sales are often routine (liquidity or tax management) and do not by themselves signal company performance; purchases typically carry more interpretive weight for bullish conviction.