Vicor's CEO and sales chief sold $7.3 million of stock the day after its second guidance hike
On October 1 Vicor's chairman and its global sales chief sold a combined $7.3 million of stock, one trading day after the company's second guidance hike in nine days and eight days before the ITC voted to investigate its patent complaint. Both sales ran on trading plans adopted months before the case was filed.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
One trading day, two Form 4s
On October 1, Vicor chairman and chief executive Patrizio Vinciarelli sold 20,000 shares in 17 lots priced between $307.02 and $330.00, grossing about $6.32 million 1. The same day, Philip Davies, the vice president for global sales and marketing, exercised 3,072 options and sold every resulting share between $307.09 and $322.03, grossing about $971,882 2. Both filings reached the SEC on October 5 12; Investing.com flagged the Davies sale on October 12 3. Vicor, the Andover, Massachusetts maker of power-conversion modules for AI processors, opened October 14 at $267.24, up from a 52-week low of $50.31, at a $12.32 billion market value and 85.65 times earnings 4.
A lawsuit priced as a sales channel
Over the past three months Vicor insiders sold 27,053 shares for $7.75 million; MarketBeat's log for the period lists no purchases 4. The selling runs beside a legal campaign. On October 9 the U.S. International Trade Commission voted to investigate Vicor's September 9 complaint that nine companies, from Delta Electronics and Infineon to Monolithic Power Systems, Flex, Celestica, Quanta, Foxconn, Luxshare and Ingrasys, import infringing vertical power delivery modules and the AI servers built on them 56. Vicor says OEMs and hyperscalers importing respondents' racks will need a license, at royalties that escalate as the case advances; its licensing page prices the escalator from 1X toward 7X once U.S. Customs enforces a ban 67. The royalties moved the numbers: guidance went from nearly 10% sequential growth to more than 20% on September 21 8, then above 30% on September 30 9. On second-quarter revenue of $143.35 million, that floor implies a record quarter above roughly $186 million 109.
Two guidance hikes in nine days put Q3 revenue above any of the last ten quarters
- Revenue
- Estimate
Data
| Revenue | |
|---|---|
| Q1 '24 | $83.87M |
| Q2 '24 | $85.85M |
| Q3 '24 | $93.17M |
| Q4 '24 | $96.17M |
| Q1 '25 | $93.97M |
| Q2 '25 | $141.05M |
| Q3 '25 | $110.42M |
| Q4 '25 | $107.26M |
| Q1 '26 | $112.97M |
| Q2 '26 | $143.35M |
| Q3 '26E (estimate) | $186.36M |
The plans came first, the case came later
Both October sales ran under Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, the kind that schedule sales in advance, adopted months before the complaint: Vinciarelli's on February 26, 2026, Davies' on November 21, 2025 12. Vinciarelli still held 8.33 million shares directly after selling, about $2.2 billion at the October 14 open, plus 167,125 shares in a family trust 14. The bull case is real: the last quarter earned $1.04 a share against a $0.65 consensus, five analysts carry an average Buy with a $391.67 target, and Vinciarelli said on September 21 that "four leading companies have secured licenses," with latecomers still able to license "at a low royalty rate" 48. The ITC itself notes it "has not yet made any decision on the merits" 5.
A target date in November, a hearing in January
Within 45 days of the October 9 institution the ITC must set a target date for the case, and a second Vicor case reaches its evidentiary hearing in January 2027 57. The tell is the royalty line: every stage of enforcement raises the price of a license, and at 85 times earnings the stock has already paid for several stages.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
