Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul have made some big bets on technology stocks over the last year. Here’s the latest three trades made in the Pelosi portfolio.
What Happened: A new filing reported by CongressTrading on Thursday shows the Pelosis made three recent trades.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL): Sold 50 call options at a strike price of $100 and expiration of June 17, 2022. The transaction took place on June 17, 2022 and is listed with a value of $100,000 to $250,000.
NVIDIA Inc (NASDAQ:NVDA): Exercised 200 calls (20,000 shares) at a strike price of $100 and expiration of June 17, 2022. The transaction took place on June 17, 2022 and is listed with a value of $1 million to $5 million.
Visa Inc (NYSE:V): Sold 10,000 shares on June 21. Transaction valued at $1 million to $5 million.
The three transactions are the latest in the Pelosis' tech-heavy portfolio.
The Visa shares were sold on June 21 when shares trading between a range of $193.73 and $196.73. It was reported several years ago on “60 Minutes” that the Pelosis participated in the Visa IPO, securing 5,000 shares at an IPO price of $44. Visa performed a 4-1 stock split in March 2015, taking the new cost basis on shares down to $11 each.
Based on the low price of $193.73 on June 21, the sale was worth $1,937,300. If the shares were from the IPO, they had a cost basis of $110,000, netting a profit of $1,827,300.
The Apple calls were purchased on May 21, 2021 for an unknown amount. At the time, shares of Apple were trading between $125.21 and $128.00. Apple traded in a range of $129.81 and $133.08 on the day the calls were sold, which should have resulted in a profitable trade.
NVIDIA shares traded between $165.83 and $172.59 when the options were purchased on June 3, 2021. Shares of NVIDIA traded between $153.28 and $159.95 on June 17, 2022 when exercised, which likely means the calls were exercised when they were worth less than the original purchase price.
Related Link: Exclusive: Unusual Whales Creates Nancy Pelosi ETF So You Can Track Her Trades
Why It’s Important: Pelosi has been a poster child for the movement for legislation to ban members of Congress from trading while elected to public office. Pelosi’s husband Paul is a venture capitalist who has made some big bets on technology names over the last several years.
The Visa IPO mentioned above led to a call for members of Congress to be barred from participating in IPOs, as it was reported the Pelosis received priority access over others.
Among the other big trades made by the Pelosis recently include Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
While there was a recent sale of the Apple options instead of exercising them, the Pelosi portfolio holds additional call options that don’t expire until June 16, 2023.
The recent trades by Pelosi follow an options strategy that was identified in an earlier Benzinga article.
- Calls on big technology
- In-the-money LEAPS: expiration one year or greater
- Sell/Exercise: contracts are sold or exercised on the day of expiration
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