Tesla CEO sells another 934,000 shares Thursday, for nearly $1 billion; but he's also exercised options to buy more than 12 million shares since Nov. 8
Elon Musk resumed his Tesla Inc. stock selloff Thursday, cashing in nearly $1 billion.
In fillings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Tesla chief executive disclosed he sold another 934,091 Tesla shares, for about $963.2 million. He also exercised options to buy 2.17 million shares at a price of $6.24.
After a flurry of stock sales in November, Musk has sold just two tranches of stock since Nov. 23 -- the previous one on Dec. 2.
Read: It's not just Elon Musk: Corporate insiders sell stocks at historic levels as market soars
In total, Musk has sold about 11.03 million shares worth about $11.82 billion since Nov. 8, a day after he said he would abide by a Twitter poll he posted in which users declared he should sell 10% of his Tesla stake. Some of the stock sales had been put into motion well before the poll was posted.
Assuming Musk intends to sell 10% of his shares, he's almost there. Before the sales began, his 10% stake amounted to about 17 million shares -- so after Thursday's sales, he has about 5.97 million shares to go. However, in the past month, he's also exercised options to buy about 12.3 million shares, in total, which actually has increased his overall stake in the electric-vehicle maker.
Also see:So after all the hype. what did happen on 12/9? Tesla stock dropped
Musk, the world's wealthiest man, has millions of stock options that he needs to exercise by August 2022, and he said in September that he intended on selling a large chunk of stock in the fourth quarter. CNBC reported last month that Musk faces about a $15 billion tax bill on those options.
Tesla shares $(TSLA.UK)$ sank Thursday and are down 6% over the past 30 days. Still, the stock is up 42% year to date, and up 60% over the past 12 months.
-Mike Murphy