Ernest S. Rady, Executive Chairman, Director and 10%+ owner of American Assets Trust, Inc. (AAT), added another 10,000 shares to his position on August 19, 2026, according to a newly filed Form 4. The open-market purchase was made at $22.77 per share, for a total outlay of $227,700.00. Following the trade, Rady’s indirectly held stake, tied to a trust or affiliated entity, stands at 8,866,117 shares.
This latest purchase is not an isolated event. It marks the seventh open-market buy by Rady in a ten-day window stretching from August 10 to August 19, 2026. Across those seven transactions, he has now put a combined $9,207,372 of his own money into AAT stock. Our system flags this activity as a cluster buy, a designation reserved for insiders making repeated purchases in a short span rather than a single, one-off transaction.
A Pattern That Keeps Building
We first covered this spree earlier in the month, when Rady’s buying had already reached roughly $8.6 million; see our earlier report, AAT’s Rady Buys $1.1M More Shares, Caps $8.6M August Spree. The August 19 purchase extends that run further, adding another $227,700 on top of what was already a notable accumulation.
What stands out here is not just the dollar figure but the consistency. Seven separate purchases in ten days, each executed at the prevailing market price, points to a sustained buying pattern rather than a single reactive trade. Rady’s role as Executive Chairman and a director, combined with his status as a 10%+ owner, means these purchases are made by someone with deep visibility into the company’s operations and strategy, though the filings themselves do not disclose any rationale behind the timing.
Academic research on insider trading has found that clustered purchases, multiple insiders or repeated buys by the same insider within a short window, tend to correlate with subsequent stock outperformance more reliably than isolated purchases. That said, this is historical pattern data, not a signal about what will happen next with AAT shares specifically, and this article is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
American Assets Trust is a real estate investment trust, and filings like this one offer a window into how those closest to the company are positioning their own capital. Whether this cluster of purchases continues into further sessions remains to be seen, and any additional Form 4 filings tied to Rady or other AAT insiders will be worth watching in the days ahead.
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Source: original SEC Form 4 filing.