First Merchants (FRME) CIO Stephan Fluhler Sells 1,795 Shares

What Happened
Stephan Fluhler, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of First Merchants Corp (FRME), had 1,795 shares disposed on Feb 8, 2026 to satisfy a tax obligation. The shares were valued at $42.34 each for a total of about $76,000. The transaction is reported under code F (payment of exercise price or tax liability), indicating share withholding rather than a discretionary open‑market sale.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-02-08; Form 4 filed 2026-02-10 (timely).
• Disposition: 1,795 shares at $42.34 per share; total value ≈ $76,000.
• Transaction code: F — payment of exercise price or tax liability (share withholding).
• Holdings note: filing footnote states reported beneficial ownership includes 15,879.362 shares from Restricted Stock Awards.
• No 10b5-1 plan or late filing flag indicated in the filing.

Context
This appears to be a routine withholding of shares to cover tax obligations tied to equity awards (restricted stock), not an opportunistic sale in the open market. Such withholdings are common after awards vest and are generally administrative rather than a signal about the insider’s view of the company.