A sell-to-cover transaction is a variation of the same-day sale and buy and hold exercises, whereby you exercise your option and sell enough shares on the same day to cover the option price and any required tax withholding, in addition to commission and SEC filing fees. The remainder of the shares not sold can be deposited into your Wells Fargo Investments brokerage account or registered in your name at Wells Fargo Shareowner ServicesSM (by direct registration, also known as book entry).
You can complete a sell-to-cover online by signing on to Stock Options Management from work or from home.
Limit Orders
Limit orders can be placed on sell-to-cover transactions. A limit order is an order to buy or sell a security at a specific price. Your exercise will be completed when the market price of Wells Fargo stock equals your limit price and the sale of shares is complete.
You have two choices for limit orders:
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Good for the day
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Good for 60 days
Please keep in mind, if you place a limit order for an exercise, the exercise will not be complete until the order meets the rules you have selected. Also, if you wish to change any element of your limit order (including changing the price or number of shares), you must do so by calling a customer service representative at Mellon Investor Services, or by signing on to the Stock Options Management tool. You will need to cancel your exercise and replace it with a new exercise.
To complete a sell-to-cover exercise:
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Go to Stock Options Management and click Grant Summary.
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Select the grant date you want to exercise.
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Click the Exercise button.
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Select Sell-to-Cover from the drop-down menu.
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Complete the exercise.
Trading and Operating Hours
Monday – Friday, 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), during New York Stock Exchange trading days
Exercises can be submitted online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Exercises entered on a weekend or holiday will be effective the next business day (provided the grant being exercised does not expire on the next day).
Same-day sale and sell-to-cover transactions submitted between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m, Eastern Time (30 minutes prior to market close), are processed on a "best effort" basis. If a trade is not completed prior to market close, the exercise will be cancelled and the exercise will need to be reentered on a subsequent day.
Please refer to the grant’s prospectus for the specific terms of each stock option grant.
