O'HERLIHY CHRISTOPHER A sold ~$25M in Illinois Tool Works Inc. stock
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) · President & CEO · Data via SEC EDGAR Form 4
Price Performance · 10 days before → 90 days after trade
▲ = insider buy date
90-day return
-9.8%vs SPY +3.3%
Trade Details · Public SEC Filing
Insider
O'HERLIHY CHRISTOPHER A
Role
President & CEO
Transaction
Open-Market Sale
Approx. Value
~$25M
Trade Date
Mar 7, 2025
Company
Illinois Tool Works Inc.
Ticker
ITWSource
SEC EDGAR Form 4
Why This Trade Stands Out
Strong conviction signal
Scored above average across multiple factors. Roughly 15% of insider trades qualify as Strong.
~$25M sale
Trades over $1M are rare. When insiders put this much of their own money on the line, they tend to have high conviction in their company's direction.
President & CEO
CEOs have the deepest knowledge of company operations. Academic research shows CEO purchases outperform other insider trades by a wide margin.
2 insiders traded in the same window
When multiple insiders independently buy within 30 days, it's called a cluster. Studies show clustered insider purchases outperform solo trades significantly, because several people with inside knowledge are reaching the same conclusion.
-9.8% in 90 days (S&P 500: +3.3%)
This trade underperformed the S&P 500 by 13.1 percentage points. Not every insider trade wins. We track all of them so you can focus on the insiders with the best records.
How good is O'HERLIHY CHRISTOPHER A at picking stocks?
Full track record: win rate, average return, and performance vs S&P 500
O'HERLIHY CHRISTOPHER A wasn't the only one selling.
2 insiders at Illinois Tool Works Inc. traded within the same 30-day window.
See who else bought · FreeOn March 7, 2025, O'HERLIHY CHRISTOPHER A — President & CEO of Illinois Tool Works Inc. — filed a Form 4 with the SEC disclosing an open-market sale of approximately ~$25M in Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) stock.
This transaction was part of a cluster — 2 insiders at Illinois Tool Works Inc. made open-market sales within the same 30-day window. Cluster activity from multiple independent insiders is one of the most studied patterns in insider trading research.
Under Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, corporate insiders must report all open-market stock transactions to the SEC within two business days. These filings — known as Form 4s — are publicly available on the SEC's EDGAR database. VeritySignals filters and scores the full Form 4 stream to surface high-conviction signals like this one.
In the 90 days following this trade, ITW returned -9.8% versus +3.3% for the S&P 500 over the same period.
VeritySignals Conviction Analysis
Full Conviction Analysis
Sign up free to see signal strength details, or upgrade for the full 15-factor breakdown.
Get notified the next time O'HERLIHY CHRISTOPHER A trades
Free alerts · No credit card · Instant notification
All data sourced from publicly available SEC Form 4 filings via EDGAR · Not financial advice · Past performance does not guarantee future results.
At a Glance
More ITW Insider Activity
Scanlon Jennifer F.
Jun 2, 2026
~$200K
STRONG
SANTI ERNEST SCOTT
Feb 3, 2023
~$73M
STRONG
Finch Norman D. Jr.
May 3, 2021
~$12M
STRONG
SANTI ERNEST SCOTT
Feb 8, 2021
~$47M
STRONG
How to Read Insider Trades
What is this?
When company executives buy or sell their own stock, they must report it to the SEC within 2 days. These public filings reveal what the people who know the company best are doing with their own money.
Why does it matter?
Insiders can sell for many reasons (taxes, diversification, expenses), but they generally only buy for one: they think the stock is going up. That's why insider purchases are more predictive than sales.
What makes a trade "strong"?
We score trades on 15+ factors: the insider's role (CEO > director), trade size relative to their salary, whether other insiders also bought (clusters), and historical accuracy of the insider.
Never miss a signal
Get notified when high-conviction insiders buy. Free account, no credit card.
Sign up free