In his first sale in over five years, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk has disposed of more than 4.5 million company shares so far this week after another bombshell tweet dragged Tesla stock down by about 12%.
According to the two filings the Securities and Exchange Commission posted on Wednesday evening, the eccentric Tesla boss had exercised on Monday $2.15 million in stock options at a price of $6.24 each, and then sold 934,000 shares at varying prices, ultimately collecting over $1.1 billion from the sales.
In a flurry of trades carried out Tuesday and Wednesday, his trust also sold more than 3.5 million shares worth over $3.88 billion though they were not scheduled sales since they were not marked as 10b5.
Tesla’s stocks gained 4.3% on Wednesday and rose over 2% in after-hours trading following the news that Musk had sold some of his shares after dropping 5% on Monday, and nearly 12% on Tuesday. The company’s shares are 2% higher in premarket trading after the company’s stock closed Wednesday at $1,067.95 per share.
According to the filings, Musk sold many of those shares to cover tax withholding obligations for stock options granted to him in September.
Amid a swirling debate about increasing taxes on unrealized stock gains to help curb tax avoidance among the ultra-wealthy last weekend, Musk called on his Twitter subscribers to help decide if he should sell 10% of his roughly 23% stake in Tesla.
The poll closed Sunday after garnering more than 3.5 million votes, with nearly 60% in favor of Musk’s proposition and more than 42% against the proposed sale. Bloomberg stressed that Musk’s tweet was pricey as his fortune was clipped to the tune of $50 billion as shares fell over a two-day period,
According to Wedbush Analyst Daniel Ives, it seems that Musk will start selling shares as the year ends with the investors’ question being if he sells his full 10% ownership stake over the coming months or piece-by-piece during 2022.
According to Forbes, Musk is the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of around $282 billion, most of it in Tesla stock.
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