Semiconductor executives took advantage of outperformance by selling $1.35 billion in company stock in the third quarter, according to the Washington Service Bureau, which tracks insider trading. The Washington Service said this was the highest quarterly sales to employees and directors of a company in the semiconductor industry, including pre-planned sales. Chip insiders have stepped up sales of the company's shares this year as artificial intelligence-driven demand for processing power drives the industry's outperformance. Nvidia (NVDA) is the second-best performing stock on the S&P 500 so far in 2024, up more than 137% since December 2023. Year to date, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has gained 19% in the same period. SMH .SPX YTD mountain VanEck Semiconductors ETF vs. S&P 500, YTD Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has led stock sales this year, offloading more than $700 million in Nvidia stock in the second and third quarters of 2024 , fulfilling the trading plan adopted in March. A recent regulatory filing showed Huang had completed the planned sale. According to FactSet data, Huang remains Nvidia's largest individual shareholder, holding about 3.5% of the company's outstanding shares. Companies often say that pre-planned sales under Rule 10b5-1 should not be treated the same as open market sales and purchases because these plans are often used for purposes such as financial planning. sales. When overall data for a particular stock or industry reaches such extremes, it still raises red flags among experts regardless. Nvidia board member and venture capitalist Tench Coxe also sold 2 million shares at the end of September, with a total value of about $235.7 million. Cox has held the shares since acquiring them in a private placement in 1997, according to a securities filing. Back in March, he sold about $170 million worth of company stock. According to data collected by VerityData, NVDA insiders revealed that third-quarter stock sales totaled approximately $960 million. Despite Nvidia's recent dominance of internal semiconductor sales, other top executives have also been selling stock. Broadcom (AVGO) CEO Hock Tan sold about 275,000 shares in three transactions between July and September for a total value of $46.9 million. Tan still controls about 1.3 million shares. Verity pointed out that in late September, Tan, a director and a company executive sold a series of AVGO shares. AVGO YTD mountain Broadcom, six YTD KLA Corp (KLAC) insiders sold shares during the quarter for a total value of approximately $29.9 million, according to Verity. Chief Executive Richard Wallace and Chief Financial Officer Bren Higgins accounted for about $16 million of that. These trades are conducted according to a 10b5-1 trading plan. According to Verity, Texas Instruments (TXN) insiders sold nearly $18 million worth of stock in the third quarter, most of which came from exercising options. Overall, 177 chip company insiders sold stock in the third quarter, down from a recent high of 245 in the second quarter of 2024, according to the Washington Service. They sold a total of 12.7 million shares in the third quarter, a slight increase from the second quarter but slightly lower than the 13.6 million shares sold in the first quarter. The data is based on a large number of companies required to file insider trading filings with the SEC, including sales of stock under a 10b5-1 trading plan and filings through September 25, 2024.