The richest man in the world continues to diversify his holdings beyond the company he co-founded 40 years ago.
A new list compiled by news alert service Sqoop, based on SEC filings, shows that Bill Gates sold $717 million worth of Microsoft stock in the first half of the year, topping the ranking of U.S. corporate insiders who have sold the most stock this year.
Gates, who owned 3.6 percent of the company as of last September, has been selling shares at a regular pace for years, which resulted in former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer surpassing Gates as the company’s largest individual shareholder last year.
Although Gates is at the top of the list, he’s not alone as a founder selling shares. Sqoop’s ranking, when scrubbed of Wall Street insiders, includes a large number of top tech executives. Out of the top 19, nine of the insiders who have sold the most stock are from the tech industry, including Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff.
Other notables on the list include Tableau Software’s Chris Stolte, who sold $105 million worth of stock, according to the list.
Here’s the Sqoop list. See this post on the site for more.
| Rank | Company | Insider | Amount US$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MICROSOFT CORP | GATES WILLIAM H III | $717,407,400 |
| 2 | GOOGLE INC. | Brin Sergey | $542,622,259 |
| 3 | GOOGLE INC. | Page Lawrence | $538,428,550 |
| 4 | CARNIVAL CORP | ARISON MICKY MEIR | $433,700,000 |
| 5 | FAMILY DOLLAR STORES INC | LEVINE HOWARD R | $278,809,852 |
| 6 | TWITTER, INC. | Williams Evan Clark | $275,037,833 |
| 7 | BEST BUY CO INC | SCHULZE RICHARD M | $253,690,144 |
| 8 | CBS CORP | MOONVES LESLIE | $210,033,068 |
| 9 | Diamond Resorts International, Inc. | Cloobeck Stephen J | $176,469,679 |
| 10 | Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc. | GILLINGS DENNIS B PH D | $162,327,527 |
| 11 | ORACLE CORP | CATZ SAFRA | $159,810,750 |
| 12 | SCHWAB CHARLES CORP | SCHWAB CHARLES R | $153,044,943 |
| 13 | NETFLIX INC | HASTINGS REED | $123,234,890 |
| 14 | Marcus & Millichap, Inc. | MARCUS GEORGE M | $121,571,500 |
| 15 | Graham Holdings Co | GRAHAM DONALD | $120,022,049 |
| 16 | Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. | Dundon Thomas G. | $110,247,075 |
| 17 | ServiceNow, Inc. | LUDDY FREDERIC B | $108,139,683 |
| 18 | Tableau Software Inc | Stolte Chris | $105,709,852 |
| 19 | SALESFORCE COM INC | Benioff Marc | $102,418,267 |
