Cadence Design Insider Ita Brennan: 665 Transactions, $49 Million at the EDA Giant

An insider at Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) — the $80 billion electronic design automation (EDA) leader — has quietly executed 665 transactions generating $48.7 million in career stock sales. Ita M. Brennan is one of the most transaction-prolific insiders in the semiconductor tool industry.

665 Transactions: The Silent Seller

Ita Brennan's 665 transactions represent roughly three sales per week over a multi-year period. At an average of approximately $73,000 per transaction, the individual trades are small — but the cumulative $48.7 million tells the real story. This is a textbook automated trading plan running at maximum frequency.

Brennan's most recent $0.2 million in sales shows the program continues to execute at its steady, metronome-like pace.

SVP Adds to the Selling

Insider	Title	Career Sales	Transactions	Recent Sales
Ita M. Brennan	Executive	$48.7M	665	$0.2M
Paul Scannell	Senior Vice President	$4.2M	18	$4.2M

Senior Vice President Paul Scannell has sold $4.2 million across 18 transactions, with all of it in recent sales. Combined, the two insiders have generated $52.9 million in sales at a company critical to the semiconductor design ecosystem.

Why Cadence Matters

Cadence Design Systems, along with rival Synopsys, forms a near-duopoly in electronic design automation — the software tools that chip designers at Nvidia, AMD, Apple, and others use to create semiconductors. The EDA industry is the picks-and-shovels play on the entire AI chip revolution.

Cadence's stock has roughly tripled since 2022, driven by increased chip design complexity and AI workload diversity. The company benefits regardless of which chip company wins the AI race — they all need Cadence's tools.

The Transaction Count in Context

Brennan's 665 transactions place her among the most prolific sellers at any technology company. For comparison, even CEOs at much larger companies rarely exceed 300-400 career transactions. The high frequency, low dollar amount per trade pattern is characteristic of Rule 10b5-1 plans set to execute at every available window.

At $80 billion in market cap, Cadence's insider selling is modest relative to company size. But the persistence — 665 trades and counting — underscores how systematically insiders can extract value over time, regardless of the stock's performance.

Track all Cadence insider activity on the CDNS stock page.