MongoDB's Insiders Sold 99 Times in Six Months and Bought Nothing
Six months of SEC Form 4s show 99 open-market insider sales of MongoDB and zero buys, led by co-founder Dwight Merriman's $28.2 million. The same month the board paid $25 million to keep the interim CEO and CFO, and Fidelity added $493 million of stock.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
Ninety-nine sales, not one purchase
The number that should stop MongoDB+3.23% — MongoDB, up 3.23 percent today bulls: 99 open-market insider sales in the six months to October 20, and not one purchase, according to the Form 4 tally published the same day the stock rose 3.8% on its AI growth story 1. Co-founder Dwight Merriman accounts for 48 of them, about $28.2 million 1. Interim CEO Dev Ittycheria booked about $15.3 million across eight sales, CFO Michael Berry about $3.5 million across 32, and Roelof Botha another $17.5 million 1.
Zero insider buys in six months: who sold MDB, and for how much
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Dwight Merriman | $28.2M |
| Roelof Botha | $17.5M |
| Dev Ittycheria | $15.3M |
| Michael Berry | $3.5M |
| Hope Cochran | $1.6M |
The board paid the sellers to stay
Five days before the tally landed, MongoDB filed an 8-K that pays two names on that list to stay: Ittycheria receives $500,000 in salary, a $500,000 sign-on bonus and $15 million of restricted stock units, fully vested by October 1, 2027, with service guaranteed to at least April 1, 2028; Berry receives $10 million of retention RSUs vesting through April 1, 2028 2.
The Inference read the deal as the board pricing transition risk out to April 2028, the window opened by CJ Desai's September exit for Meta 24. The selling ran through all of it 1.
Fidelity took the other side
The Q2 fund ledger splits the same way 1. Fidelity added 1.47 million shares, about $493 million; Jericho Capital emptied its whole 996,540-share stake, about $335 million; ValueAct cut 84% and Artisan 68% 1.
The bulls have receipts too: $771.8 million of revenue in the quarter ended July 31, up 30% year over year, Atlas at 73% of it, and a $28.4 million GAAP operating profit 57. On October 13, BofA+0.58% — BofA, up 0.58 percent today analyst Koji Ikeda kept his Buy and $540 target and raised his fiscal 2028 and 2029 revenue estimates by 3% and 6%, to $3.65 billion and $4.39 billion 3.
Fidelity's $493 million add against $1.16 billion of cuts in one quarter
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Fidelity (FMR) | $493.1M |
| JPMorgan | $233.1M |
| BlackRock | $207.2M |
| D.E. Shaw | -$251M |
| Artisan | -$279.8M |
| ValueAct | -$292.9M |
| Jericho Capital | -$334.7M |
The asterisk on the tally
Merriman's own Form 4, filed October 13, reports sales on October 8 and 9 at weighted average prices of $359.90 to $377, and carries the footnote that the transactions were made pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan 6. Plan sales execute on a schedule set months in advance. The tally does not say how many of the 99 carry that flag, and neither does any other public document 1.
BofA's own bear case, meanwhile, warns that Atlas Infinite's pay-for-what-you-use pricing "compresses Atlas spend through improved efficiency," and even the bull models Atlas growth slowing to 24% in fiscal 2028 5.
What settles it
Ikeda named his measuring sticks himself: Atlas revenue growth and the net expansion rate 3. Watch those prints, and the 10b5-1 boxes on the next batch of Form 4s 3. Merriman sold on a schedule. Fidelity bought a story. The next two Atlas reports decide who gets paid.
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