Intel CEO Krzanich Slashed Stock Holdings at End of Last Year

Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich sold off a chunk of company stock in the fourth quarter of last year, bringing his holdings to a five-year low.

The sale has captured attention thanks to revelations that Intel chips are potentially vulnerable to hackers. Reports of the issue weighed on the shares and prompted the company to acknowledge the problem on Tuesday, saying its chips weren’t the only ones affected and predicting no material effect on its business.

“Brian’s sale is unrelated,” a company spokesman said. “It was made pursuant to a pre-arranged stock sale plan with an automated sale schedule. He continues to hold shares in line with corporate guidelines.”

According to filings, on Nov. 29, Krzanich exercised and sold 644,135 options and sold an additional 245,743 shares that he already owned. That sale decreased his overall holdings by about 50 percent, bringing his ownership level near to what he held at the end of 2013. Each of those share transactions were made according to the prearranged trading plan, which was adopted in June 2015. 

Since the plan was set up, Krzanich has had a common trading pattern. In February, he gets his equity payout under Intel’s performance-based incentive plan. For fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017, he received 89,581, 87,061 and 278,868 shares, respectively. Then in the last quarter of each of those years, he makes sales that are proportionate to the awards he got. In the last quarter of 2015, he sold 70,000 and in 2016 he sold more than 50,000. And this year, the sale was much larger in light of the large payout he got in February.

The shares fell 3.2 percent to $43.80 at 11:18 a.m. in New York.

— With assistance by Jenn Zhao