Insider trading activity: Technology

[Updated May 01, 2013.] In April, we recorded 522 open-market insider trades at 154 companies having a total value of $1 billion. Transaction dollar volume was 24.2% higher than in March, and 9.7% higher when compared to insider trading activity a year ago. Purchases accounted for 11.8% of all open-market trades last month. Our insider sell-to-buy ratio, which excludes derivative conversions and certain other types of transactions, ended the month at 7.24, up from March's reading of 6.14. On average, a sell-to-buy ratio below 4 is considered bullish, while readings above 7 are bearish.

For the 6th consecutive week, activity in April was the most concentrated in the Application Software industry, where 43 insiders filed trades having an aggregate market value of $643.5 million. Rounding out the top three industries were Semiconductor - Integrated Circuits (30 trades for $61.9 million) and Business Software & Services (19 trades for $19 million). We did not record any insider activity in the Internet Service Providers, Personal Computers or Telecom Services - Foreign industries in the past month.

The largest open-market transaction of the month was in MSFT stock, where Bill Gates, a director of the firm, sold 12,605,500 shares for a total of $390.4 million. The biggest buy last month was for 208,970 shares of VMW, worth $15 million.