Mike Henry has sold $650k of BHP shares in the past week. What’s going on?

When a CEO of an ASX share sells stock of their own company, it is usually enough to pique the attention of investors. But when the CEO of the largest share on the S&P/ASX 200 Index A(SX: XJO) offloads more than half a million dollars worth of shares, it’s a big deal. So let’s talk about BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares.

BHP is of course the largest publically-traded company in Australia. With its market capitalisation of almost $224 billion, BHP occupies more than 10% of the total weighting in the ASX 200 Index alone.

And BHP has been on quite the run lately. It was only back in late September that the mining giant was trading at close to $36 a share. But today, BHP is closing in on the $44 mark, having gained an impressive 21% or so over the past two months.

So that brings us to the CEO. Mike Henry has run BHP since 2020, succeeding Andrew Mackenzie at the top job.

But a recent ASX filing shows that Henry has just unloaded 15,002 BHP shares. Yep, on 22 November, Henry sold those 15,002 shares for a price of $43.32 each. That’s a grand total of $649,886.64 in proceeds.

So why is the CEO of BHP selling out such a large parcel of shares? Is this a vote of no confidence in BHP’s future?

BHP’s CEO selling off shares?

Well, it’s time for some context.

So yes, Henry did make this sale. However, on this same day, he became eligible for a massive influx of new shares and performance rights. So on this day, Henry received a grant of 325,471 rights to acquire BHP shares at a later date.

These form part of Henry’s compensation package. In addition, Henry also received 31,616 ordinary BHP shares granted from previous performance rights.

It was from these 31,616 BHP shares that Henry sold his 15,002 shares. So he still holds more shares than he did before 22 November, despite the $650k sale.

Thus, for investors worried that Henry might not have enough skin in the game, let’s set minds at ease. Even after this sale, Henry now has 677,218 BHP shares to his name. That has a value of approximately $29.6 million at today’s prices.

Henry also has an additional 761,423 rights that could convert into additional BHP shares in the future. As well as another 248,854 ‘cash and deferred plan awards’ that can also convert to stock at some point.

That’s a lot of skin.

The post Mike Henry has sold $650k of BHP shares in the past week. What’s going on? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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