SEC Form 4 Insider Trades Scraper

Extract transaction-level insider trades from public SEC EDGAR ownership filings by ticker or CIK. The Actor saves one row per reported transaction with issuer details, reporting owner roles, shares, prices, values, ownership fields, and SEC source URLs.

At a glance

• Primary job: Monitor public-company insider transactions from official SEC filings.
• Input: Tickers and/or CIKs, filing date bounds, form types, and per-issuer filing limits.
• Output: Insider owner, role flags, transaction code/date, shares, price, value, ownership, and SEC source URLs.
• Best for: Investor research, compliance exports, BI dashboards, news monitoring, and scheduled watchlists.

Who is this for?

• Investors and analysts tracking insider purchases, sales, grants, and ownership changes.
• Compliance teams exporting auditable public Form 4 transaction records by issuer or CIK.
• Financial journalists monitoring recent insider activity around public companies.
• Data teams feeding SEC insider transactions into dashboards, alerts, or warehouses.

Input recipes

• Single ticker smoke test: {"tickers":["AAPL"],"formTypes":["4"],"maxFilings":10}
• Watchlist: {"tickers":["AAPL","MSFT"],"formTypes":["4","4/A"],"maxFilings":10}
• Compliance export by CIK: {"ciks":["0000320193","789019"],"formTypes":["3","4","4/A","5"],"maxFilings":25,"includeFootnotes":true}

What data can you extract?

Field	Description
ticker, cik, issuerName	Public company identifiers resolved from SEC data.
accessionNumber, formType, filedAt, periodOfReport	Filing metadata.
filingUrl, xmlUrl	Audit links back to SEC EDGAR source documents.
reportingOwnerName, reportingOwnerCik	Insider/reporting owner identity.
isDirector, isOfficer, isTenPercentOwner, officerTitle	Deterministic relationship flags from the filing.
transactionDate, transactionCode, transactionAcquiredDisposedCode	Transaction timing and SEC transaction codes.
securityTitle, shares, pricePerShare, transactionValue	Transaction economics when reported. Gifts/grants may have null price/value.
sharesOwnedFollowingTransaction, ownershipNature, isDerivative	Post-transaction and derivative/non-derivative ownership details.
footnotes	Optional filing footnotes when enabled.
source, scrapedAt	Provenance and scrape timestamp.

The Actor also writes RUN_SUMMARY to the default key-value store with processed issuer counts, matched filing counts, saved transactions, warnings, and per-input failures.

Input configuration

Setting	JSON key	Use it for	Example
Tickers	tickers	Resolve public company ticker symbols.	["AAPL", "MSFT"]
CIKs	ciks	Query known SEC CIKs directly; padded and unpadded values work.	["0000320193", "789019"]
Start/end date	startDate, endDate	Bound by SEC filing date.	"2026-01-01"
Form types	formTypes	Include Forms 3, 4, 4/A, or 5.	["4", "4/A"]
Maximum filings	maxFilings	Cap filings inspected per issuer.	10
Derivatives	includeDerivativeTransactions	Include derivative transaction table rows.	false
Footnotes	includeFootnotes	Attach SEC filing footnotes to output rows.	true
Proxy	proxyConfiguration	Optional Apify proxy settings; normally leave disabled.	{ "useApifyProxy": false }

Example input

{
  "tickers": ["AAPL", "MSFT"],
  "formTypes": ["4"],
  "maxFilings": 10,
  "includeDerivativeTransactions": false,
  "includeFootnotes": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

Example output

{
  "ticker": "AAPL",
  "cik": "0000320193",
  "issuerName": "Apple Inc.",
  "accessionNumber": "0000320193-26-000001",
  "formType": "4",
  "filedAt": "2026-01-15",
  "periodOfReport": "2026-01-13",
  "filingUrl": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/...-index.htm",
  "xmlUrl": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/.../form4.xml",
  "reportingOwnerName": "Example Owner",
  "reportingOwnerCik": "0000000000",
  "isDirector": true,
  "isOfficer": false,
  "isTenPercentOwner": false,
  "officerTitle": null,
  "transactionDate": "2026-01-13",
  "transactionCode": "P",
  "transactionAcquiredDisposedCode": "A",
  "securityTitle": "Common Stock",
  "shares": 1000,
  "pricePerShare": 150.25,
  "transactionValue": 150250,
  "sharesOwnedFollowingTransaction": 5000,
  "ownershipNature": "D",
  "isDerivative": false,
  "footnotes": null,
  "source": "SEC_EDGAR",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-21T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Pricing

Event	Price	Charged when
Run start	$0.005 per run	Once when the Actor starts.
Transaction row saved	Free $0.000575, Bronze $0.0005, Silver $0.00039, Gold $0.0003, Platinum $0.0002, Diamond $0.00014 per row	Each parsed transaction row saved to the dataset.

API usage

cURL

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~sec-form-4-insider-trades-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"tickers":["AAPL"],"formTypes":["4"],"maxFilings":10}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/sec-form-4-insider-trades-scraper').call({
  tickers: ['AAPL'],
  formTypes: ['4'],
  maxFilings: 10,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('MY-APIFY-TOKEN')
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/sec-form-4-insider-trades-scraper').call(run_input={
    'tickers': ['AAPL'],
    'formTypes': ['4'],
    'maxFilings': 10,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

MCP and AI agents

Use this Actor from Apify MCP Server when an agent needs structured SEC insider-trade rows. Configure the MCP endpoint with:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/sec-form-4-insider-trades-scraper

Add it to Claude CLI with:

$claude mcp add apify-sec-form-4 'https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/sec-form-4-insider-trades-scraper'

JSON config example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-sec-form-4": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/sec-form-4-insider-trades-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Get recent Form 4 insider transactions for AAPL, maximum 10 filings."
• "Export Form 4 and 4/A rows for CIK 0000320193 with footnotes."
• "Check AAPL and MSFT insider trades and summarize the transaction codes."

Good agent prompts include the ticker/CIK list, date range, whether derivatives are needed, and the maximum filings per issuer.

Tips for best results

• Use focused watchlists: Split very large universes into smaller scheduled runs.
• Keep maxFilings bounded: Start with 10-25 filings per issuer, then increase if needed.
• Use CIKs for compliance workflows: CIK inputs avoid ticker ambiguity and survive ticker changes.
• Expect nullable economics: Gifts, grants, and some derivative rows may not report a cash price.

Limits and responsible use

This Actor only extracts official public SEC EDGAR ownership filings. It does not provide investment advice, buy/sell recommendations, AI scoring, private brokerage data, or Congress disclosure data. Use the data for research, compliance, and reporting, and verify important decisions against the linked SEC filing.

Related Actors

• SEC EDGAR Company Filings Scraper for broader company filing discovery.
• SEC Form 4 Insider Trades Scraper for transaction-level ownership filings once published.

FAQ

Does this Actor give investment advice?
No. It returns structured public filing data only.

Can I input CIKs instead of tickers?
Yes. Use ciks with padded or unpadded SEC CIK values.

Why are price or value fields sometimes null?
Some transaction codes, grants, gifts, or derivative records do not report a cash price.

Where do diagnostics live?
The default key-value store contains RUN_SUMMARY with status, warning, and failure details.

Support

If a run does not return what you expected, open an Apify issue and include:

• the run ID or run URL;
• the exact input JSON;
• the expected output;
• the actual output or empty dataset detail;
• a reproducible public URL such as an SEC filing URL, plus the ticker or CIK used.