One insider cluster, step by step
In late October 2026 three directors of First Financial Bankshares, Inc. (FFIN) bought its shares on the open market, 148,938 USD between them, and our insider page listed the three as a cluster. Afterwards a cluster reads as one event. At the time it arrived as three separate filings over a week, and for days at a stretch nobody outside the company could see a trade that had already happened. This page walks it in the order a reader could have seen it.
Our sources: the three Form 4s on EDGAR, read Thursday, November 5, 2026 (linked at each step), and their filing indexes, which give the time EDGAR accepted each one, Eastern. The close after each filing is the first session close on or after the filing day, from our daily bar store, as the insider page stores it. Business days are counted Monday to Friday; no market holiday falls between Friday, October 23, 2026 and Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
The rule that names a cluster
On our insider page a cluster is 2 or more different insiders with open-market purchases in the same stock inside 45 days. The rule counts people, not dollars, and it can only count filings that are public. Each step below says how many purchases a reader could see at that moment and whether the rule was met yet.
The steps
- Friday, October 23, 2026, trade date
Director Robert Clark Nickles Jr buys 820 shares at 30.12 USD, 24,698.40 USD in all, held indirectly, by a limited liability corporation. Public at this moment: nothing about this trade. The form is due by Tuesday, October 27, 2026. What a reader could see: no purchase by any insider in this cluster yet.
- Tuesday, October 27, 2026, 9:54 AM Eastern, EDGAR accepts the Form 4
Robert Clark Nickles Jr’s purchase from Friday, October 23, 2026 becomes public, 4 calendar days after the trade and inside the two-business-day deadline. The form shows 99,144 shares in that account after the purchase, and 15,851 shares held directly. Its 10b5-1 plan box is not checked. Its footnote: “shares owned by a limited liability corporation of which the reporting person and his spouse are equal beneficial owners.” Public now: 1 purchase by 1 director, 24,698.40 USD. The cluster rule is not met. The first close a reader could pay after this filing: 30.20 USD on Tuesday, October 27, 2026; the director paid 30.12 USD. The filing on EDGAR
- Thursday, October 29, 2026, trade date
Director Michael B. Denny buys 3,245 shares at 30.76 USD, 99,816.20 USD in all, held indirectly, by an IRA. Public at this moment: nothing about this trade. The form is due by Monday, November 2, 2026. What a reader could see: 1 earlier purchase by 1 director, 24,698.40 USD.
- Friday, October 30, 2026, 2:22 PM Eastern, EDGAR accepts the Form 4
Michael B. Denny’s purchase from Thursday, October 29, 2026 becomes public, 1 calendar day after the trade and inside the two-business-day deadline. The form shows 9,745 shares in that account after the purchase, and 107,350 shares held by a limited partnership. Its 10b5-1 plan box is not checked. Public now: 2 purchases by 2 directors, 124,514.60 USD. The cluster rule is met from this moment. The first close a reader could pay after this filing: 30.59 USD on Friday, October 30, 2026; the director paid 30.76 USD. The filing on EDGAR
- Friday, October 30, 2026, trade date
Director Murray Hamilton Edwards buys 800 shares in 2 lines (300 at 30.56 USD, 500 at 30.51 USD), an average of 30.5288 USD, 24,423.00 USD in all, held indirectly, by trusts. Public at this moment: nothing about this trade. The form is due by Tuesday, November 3, 2026. What a reader could see: 2 earlier purchases by 2 directors, 124,514.60 USD.
- Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 9:41 AM Eastern, EDGAR accepts the Form 4
Murray Hamilton Edwards’s purchase from Friday, October 30, 2026 becomes public, 4 calendar days after the trade and inside the two-business-day deadline. The form shows 45,434 shares in that account after the purchase, and 204,127 shares held directly, 8,880 by his spouse, and 19,480 by a trust marked no beneficial ownership. Its 10b5-1 plan box is not checked. Its footnote: “shares owned by trusts in which Mr. Edwards is trustee and Administrator. Mr. Edwards disclaims beneficial ownership of these securities.” Public now: 3 purchases by 3 directors, 148,937.60 USD. The cluster rule is met. The first close a reader could pay after this filing: 31.04 USD on Tuesday, November 3, 2026; the director paid 30.5288 USD. The filing on EDGAR
What the record shows, and what it does not
- All three buyers are directors. Our insider page showed no other open-market FFIN trade by anyone in the 45 days to Thursday, November 5, 2026.
- The purchases differ in size: the largest, 99,816.20 USD, is about four times either of the others.
- None of the three forms checks the 10b5-1 plan box.
- One of the three purchases went into trusts whose beneficial ownership the director disclaims on the form. A count of people buying treats it the same as the others; the footnote is where the difference shows.
- The rule was met on the second filing, Friday, October 30, 2026, 2:22 PM Eastern, seven calendar days after the first trade. The first trade had been private for four of those days.
- We print no outcome. On Thursday, November 5, 2026 the last filing was 2 days old, and one cluster is a sample of one: whatever the price did next would describe this case, not clusters. Before and after the filing measures purchases in bulk, with its sample floors stated.
This is a reading of public filings, not a view on FFIN. How fund filings work and the live insider page carry on from here.