This year has come with more than its share of ups and downs. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a recession that came out of left field, and investors of all sorts went into panic mode. Even corporate insiders who are supposed to have clean visibility and deep knowledge of their own companies and industries found themselves caught in a hard place after February’s all-time stock market highs went into a raging bear market, with many companies losing half of their stock’s value.

There could be a warning now that the S&P 500 is almost fully recovered and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is hitting higher and higher highs almost daily. Corporate insiders, including CEOs and investing groups with board positions, are selling many millions worth of stock.

Investors might not panic seeing insiders selling stock. After all, even the wealthiest corporate insiders need to access their cash sometimes, just like the rest of us. Many sales are listed as 10b5-1 plan stock sales, which are deemed to be regular and scheduled sales of stock over time. Other stock sales may be for financial planning purposes, or to buy a mega-mansion.

24/7 Wall St. has tracked a significant wave of insiders selling $1 million or more in stock in the final days of July and the start of August. Many of these are those planned sales and are within post-earnings insider trading windows, where insiders are allowed to unload stock. Some sales are also stock options being exercised and then sold. Some individual sales featured below are not $1 million on their own, but they were more than the $1 million mark collectively.

One interesting aspect of many of these major corporate sales is that they are happening after the stock market has fully recovered and as these insiders have largely stayed away from offering guidance in the COVID-19-induced recession.

Here is a list of the billions worth of insider stock sales that have been seen from the final days of July and the start of August, and the list of insider selling would have still been massive had we backed out stock sales from the richest American. The stock sales have been so numerous that this list even only covers the companies with names starting with the letters A through F.

Aaron’s Inc. (NYSE: AAN) saw CEO John Robinson sell 261,017 shares at an average of $51.74 apiece, with gross proceeds of more than $13 million on sales July 31 and August 3. Other insiders sold a combined 63,500 shares on July 31 for close to $3.2 million. This lease-to-own retailer is in the process of splitting into two companies, and its shares have a 52-week range of $13.01 to 78.65.

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is now roughly a $450 stock, so it doesn’t take too many shares to get to $1 million in insider selling. Its shares have risen nearly five-fold since 2016. CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 10,000 shares on July 29 at $438.10, for a total of about $4.38 million. Ann Lewnes, an officer, sold 5,000 shares for more than $2.2 million on August 3. Chief Financial Officer John Murphy sold 4,000 shares for about $1.74 million on July 27.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) has seen its stock surge, and it just joined the $100 billion market cap club. The stock is up over 17 times its value from 2016 and over 100% since March. Nora Denzel, a director, sold 75,000 shares at $78.75 for more than $5.9 million on July 31.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (NYSE: ARE) saw roughly 120,000 shares sold by eight different insiders on July 31 and August 3. This was a combined value of $21 million, versus a $22 billion market cap. Unlike other real estate investment trusts, this stock has held ground and was recently at 52-week highs, as its office buildings cater to collaborative life science, technology, and ag-tech campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has seen its shares scream higher in 2020. Founding Chair and CEO Jeff Bezos had yet another round of stock sales to finance his commercial space efforts (and probably some private jet fuel). Bezos sold some 154,394 common shares on August 3 and 4, for a grand total of $485 million. Bezos had another block of 454,338 shares sold for an even larger $1.42 billion on August 3, and another 293,614 shares for some $916 million on August 4. Another 97,654 shares were sold on August 4, for more than $307 million in total proceeds. While this is a massive amount for everyone else, Bezos still has a whopping 54,880,038 shares of direct ownership in Amazon. An officer, Andrew Jassy, sold 6.945 shares on August 3 for $22.1 million under a planned sale as well.

Boston Beer Co. Inc. (NYSE: SAM) has made a massive recovery as seltzer and craft beer sales have been strong. A director of the company sold 4,105 shares at $842.76 on August 5 for a total of about $3.45 million.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) has seen large insider selling as its shares approached the $600 mark. Its stock has more than tripled in four years. John Bickham (president) sold 231,993 shares from options worth more than $133.9 million on July 31. Jonathon Hargis (vice president) exercised options and then sold some 6,375 shares, for gross proceeds of $8.02 million, on August 4.

Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (NYSE: CHD) just hit a new high and is more than a $23 billion company. The consumer products company saw seven insiders and officers sell shares from August 3 to August 4, coming to more than 455,000 shares at share prices of $92.86 to $95.58. This came to more than $42 million in total.

Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ: CGNX) has seen its shares rise before and after earnings, with total gains of about 75% just since the March low. Sheila Dipalma (senior vice president) sold 43,500 shares at $66.56 for proceeds of about $2.895 million on August 3. Dianne Parrotte (director) sold 8,000 shares for $536,250 from August 3 through August 4. CEO Robert Willett sold 100,000 shares for more than $6.59 million on July 31, and he sold another 100,000 shares for $6.6 million on August 3.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has been mostly range-bound since the start of 2017, and the company recently announced layoffs. Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal, sold just under 99,500 shares at $42.91 apiece for a total of more than $4.2 million on August 3.

Cincinnati Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CINF) is still down handily from its pre-pandemic highs. Vice President Teresa Cracas sold 100,000 shares at $82.79 for a value of $8.27 million on July 29. With shares at $9.50, they have a 52-week range is $46.07 to $118.19.

Centene Corp. (NYSE: CNC) has seen two insider sales. Orlando Ayala, a director, sold 9,878 shares for more than $645,000 on July 30, but on the same date, Vice President Kenneth Burdick sold 35,000 shares for more than $2.3 million and Robert Ditmore, a director, sold 33,333 shares for more than $2.17 million.

Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) has seen a slew of selling after earnings, and its stock managed to hit a 52-week high of $31.92 on Wednesday. Multiple insiders (Curran, Kinlin, CEO Weeks and Vice Chair McRae) sold more than 186,000 shares combined from July 29 to July 31 for proceeds of more than $5.7 million combined.

Datadog Inc. (NASDAQ: DDOG) has seen its shares scream higher as a cloud winner. CFO David Obstler sold 35,000 shares at $89.66 each for a total of more than $3.1 million on July 29. A director, Michael Callahan, sold a larger block of 145,000 shares at $89.39 for a sum of more than $12.9 million on July 29. CEO Olivier Pomel sold 344,200 shares at $94.93 on August 3 for a much larger sum of $32.67 million, and President Alexis Le-Quoc sold 384,200 shares on August 3 for a total of $36.47 million.

Digital Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: DLR) is frequently considered the landlord of the cloud, with massive buildings and space targeting data centers. Vice President Joshua Mills sold 2,500 shares at $155.00 for a total of $387,500 on July 29. CEO Bill Stein sold a much larger block of 25,000 shares at $156.52 on July 29 for a total of $3.91 million.

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) has fully recovered from its old data breach. On July 29, four officers and insiders sold more than 29,000 shares with a collective value of close to $4.7 million.

Exact Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: EXAS) has been well known for its Cologuard testing system, but the company backed its way into COVID-19 testing. CEO Kevin Conroy sold 25,198 shares at $93.80 for a sum of $2.36 million on August 3, and James Doyle (director) sold another 2,539 shares at $94.00 for a sum of $238,666 on July 31. Four more insiders sold another almost 100,000 shares, taking the grand sum considerably higher.

Fair Isaac Corp. (NYSE: FICO) has seen its shares surge to new highs in 2020, with the stock more than doubling from its bottom in March. It even announced a new stock buyback plan. CEO William Lansing sold 24,298 shares from an options exercise with a sale price of $442.46 per share. That came to $10.75 million in total proceeds.

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