Reardon Andrew 4

What Happened

• Andrew Reardon, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary of Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND), exercised 5,000 stock options on July 1, 2026 (exercise cost $52.27 per share, $261,350 total) and sold 5,000 shares in multiple open-market trades that day for aggregate proceeds of approximately $1,566,377. He also acquired 132 shares on June 30, 2026 under the company ESPP for $21,214. The net effect in these transactions is +132 shares retained (5,132 acquired vs. 5,000 sold). The sales were routine disposals under a pre-existing written 10b5-1 trading plan.

Key Details

• Transaction dates: June 30, 2026 (ESPP purchase); July 1, 2026 (option exercise and multiple sales).
• Option exercise: 5,000 shares at $52.27 each = $261,350 paid.
• Sales: 5,000 shares sold across multiple trades at weighted-average prices in the ~$308.63–$317.43 range; total proceeds ≈ $1.566M.
• ESPP purchase: 132 shares at $160.71 each = $21,214 (acquired under Rule 16b-3 exemptions).
• Footnotes: Transactions were made under a written 10b5-1 plan (adopted Nov 24, 2025); several sale lines show weighted-average prices with price ranges in the filing.
• Filing: Form 4 was filed July 6, 2026. (Transactions occurred June 30–July 1; the filing date is several business days after the trades.)

Context

• This was an option exercise followed by same-day open-market sales (effectively realizing the gain between the exercise price and sale price). Such exercises followed by sales are common for covering exercise costs, taxes, or rebalancing and should not be read as a directional endorsement or rejection of the company by itself.
• The small ESPP purchase is a routine employee purchase (not a large buy signal).
• The trades were conducted under a 10b5-1 trading plan, which typically schedules trades in advance and can indicate the sales were pre-planned rather than opportunistic.