Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) reported a new purchase of Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) call options in a Periodic Transaction Report filed with the U.S. House of Representatives. The transaction, dated August 14, 2026, was made through a jointly-held account shared with his spouse and held at Morgan Stanley’s Portfolio Management Active Assets Account.
According to the filing, the disclosed amount falls between $250,001 and $500,000, placing it among the larger single transactions Gottheimer has reported this year. The filer’s own description specifies the details of the derivative position: ‘Call options; Strike price $340; Expires 10/16/2026.’ That means the contracts give the holder the right, but not the obligation, to purchase MSFT shares at $340 before the mid-October expiration date.
Our internal classification tags this as a congress buy signal, reflecting the bullish positioning implied by a call option purchase rather than a straightforward equity buy. We covered the initial disclosure in more detail in our earlier piece, Josh Gottheimer Discloses MSFT Call Option Purchase, which walks through the mechanics of the filing itself.
An Insider Sale in the Same Window
What makes this filing notable beyond the transaction itself is its timing relative to activity inside Microsoft. Company insider Coleman Amy sold MSFT shares on August 17, 2026, in a transaction valued at $44,112. That sale falls within 30 days of Gottheimer’s disclosed purchase, creating a cross-signal that our tracking system flags for readers following both congressional and corporate insider activity on the same ticker.
It’s worth being clear about what this overlap does and doesn’t mean. STOCK Act filings and Form 4 insider disclosures are separate legal reporting regimes with different triggers, deadlines, and purposes. A member of Congress buying call options and a company insider selling shares in the same general window does not establish any connection between the two, nor does it suggest coordination. It simply means both events are part of the public record for MSFT during the same 30-day span, which is exactly the kind of pattern this site exists to surface.
Readers interested in how other MSFT-related congressional disclosures have looked recently may also want to see our coverage of a separate filing, Kevin Hern Discloses MSFT Stock Sale via Family Foundation, which involves a different member, a different vehicle, and the opposite direction of trade.
As with all Periodic Transaction Reports, the underlying document is a legally required disclosure, not an indication of any wrongdoing. Gottheimer’s filing simply adds another data point to the public trail of congressional trading activity in Microsoft stock during August 2026.