Ali Asif 4

What Happened
Ali Asif, Chief Financial Officer of Protagonist Therapeutics (PTGX), exercised stock options and sold shares on March 26, 2026. He exercised two option tranches to acquire 19,500 shares at $19.19 (cost $374,205) and 5,265 shares at $12.17 (cost $64,075), then sold 24,765 shares in the open market at a weighted-average price of $104.24 for total proceeds of $2,581,504. The filing also reports derivative conversion entries for the exercised option amounts at $0.00 as part of the exercise reporting.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-03-26 (Form 4 filed 2026-03-27; appears timely).
• Option exercises (acquisitions): 19,500 shares @ $19.19 = $374,205; 5,265 shares @ $12.17 = $64,075.
• Open-market sale: 24,765 shares @ weighted avg $104.24 = $2,581,504. (Sale prices ranged $104.00–$104.465 per footnote.)
• Shares owned after the transactions: not specified in the provided filing.
• Notable footnotes: F1 notes 433 shares acquired under the issuer’s 2016 ESPP on March 9, 2026 are included in the aggregate; F2 gives the sale price range and offers to provide per-price breakdown if requested; F3 and F4 describe option grant dates and vesting schedules (grants from 4/18/2022 and 1/16/2023 with specified vesting).
• No 10b5‑1 trading plan or tax-withholding specifics were disclosed in the provided filing.

Context

• This filing reflects option exercises immediately followed by an open‑market sale of shares the same day, which effectively realizes proceeds from the exercised options. The Form 4 reports both the acquisition (exercise) and the sale; it does not state the insider’s motivation.
• Purchases (acquisitions) can be a stronger bullish signal; here the material cash event is the sale (~$2.58M). Investors should view this as a disclosure of insider liquidity rather than a direct statement about company outlook.