Vaxcyte (PCVX) CEO Grant Pickering Surrenders Shares for Taxes

What Happened

Grant Pickering, CEO of Vaxcyte, surrendered a total of 6,289 shares to the company to cover tax withholding liabilities arising from vested RSUs. The transaction occurred in two parts: 2,862 shares on 2026-08-31 at $60.74 each ($173,838) and 3,427 shares on 2026-09-02 at $61.58 each ($211,035), for an aggregate value of approximately $384,873. These disposals were reported on a Form 4 filed 2026-09-02 and are recorded with transaction code F (tax withholding).

Key Details

• Transaction dates and prices:
  • 2026-08-31: 2,862 shares surrendered @ $60.74 = $173,838 (F)
  • 2026-09-02: 3,427 shares surrendered @ $61.58 = $211,035 (F)
• Total shares surrendered: 6,289; total value ≈ $384,873.
• Nature of trade: Shares surrendered to cover tax withholding on vested RSUs (code F), effectively a cashless withholding/surrender — not an open-market sale indicating a directional bet.
• Shares owned after transaction: Not specified in the provided excerpt of the filing.
• Footnotes: F1 confirms shares were surrendered to cover tax withholding; F2 and F3 note some shares are held in trusts for the reporting person’s son and daughter.
• Filing: Form 4 filed 2026-09-02; the filing shows these routine tax-withholding dispositions (no late-filing flag noted in the information provided).

Context

Surrenders to cover tax withholding are a common administrative step when RSUs vest and generally do not signal the insider choosing to liquidate shares for discretionary reasons. For retail investors, purchases or open-market sales tend to be more informative about insider sentiment than routine tax-withholding disposals.