Leroy T. Carlson Jr., Vice Chair of Telephone and Data Systems (TDS), has filed 48 Form 4 transactions with the SEC, all in a single company. The pattern is overwhelmingly one-sided: Carlson has recorded zero open-market purchases and zero acquisitions of shares through option exercises or awards in the recent window. Instead, the activity centers on sales and automatic dispositions. The only outright open-market sale came on August 12, 2025, when Carlson disposed of TDS shares worth approximately $4.27 million. That same day, he exercised options valued at roughly $3.16 million combined, though the net effect was still a reduction in his direct holdings.
The bulk of Carlson’s recent filings are mechanical rather than discretionary. On May 17, 2026, he exercised options worth about $35.5 million and simultaneously had shares withheld to cover taxes, with those “F” transactions totaling roughly $15.1 million. Similar paired option exercises and tax-withholding events occurred on May 21, 2026, and June 11, 2026, with the latter involving $1.81 million in exercises and $757,968 in withholdings. These are standard compensation-related events, not signals of directional conviction. Carlson also received several zero-value grants (code “A”) in early 2026 and made gifts in late 2025, none of which involve cash changing hands.
The only transaction that could be read as a discretionary decision is the August 2025 sale of $4.27 million in TDS stock, which followed option exercises. Since then, Carlson has not made any open-market purchases, and his recent activity consists entirely of option exercises, tax withholdings, and grants. The data shows a consistent pattern of reducing exposure through scheduled sales and automatic dispositions, with no recent buying to offset that flow.
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