Days After Twitter Poll, Elon Musk sells $5bn of Tesla stock
Written by Max1023fm on November 11, 2021
CEO and Chief Engineer at SpaceX and Product Architect of Tesla, Elon Musk has sold over $5 billion in Tesla stock and still owns over 166 million shares, according to financial documents.
In a series of sales, his trust sold approximately 3.5 million shares valued at over $3.88 billion.
The transactions were not identified as 10b5, indicating that they were not planned sales.
Days After Twitter Poll, Elon Musk sells $5bn of Tesla stock
According to filings, Musk is selling a separate block of Tesla shares under a plan he started on Sept. 14, 2021.
More than 930,000 shares worth more than $1.1 billion were sold.
According to reports. Musk sold these shares in part to meet tax obligations connected to stock option exercises.
Musk invited his 62.5 million Twitter followers to vote on the sale idea before it was made public.
Musk invited his 62.5 million Twitter followers to vote in an informal poll before the sale proposal was made public, assuring them that their decision will determine the destiny of his Tesla holdings. According to the documents, he was aware that some of his shares were up for sale this week.
Tesla’s stock dropped more than 15% after the Twitter poll on Monday and Tuesday, before regaining more than 4% on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the stock was up in after-hours trading.
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said he personally did not want Musk to sell when he spoke at the DealBook Online Summit on Wednesday.
He said,
“Individuals like Elon Musk, like Jeff Bezos have transformed life, and we want to keep them in control of their companies, as long as they’ve got the energy and the ambition to keep moving the business forward.”
Musk had previously stated that he planned to sell “a huge block” of his options in the fourth quarter.
Musk stated that his marginal tax rate would be over 50% when his Tesla stock options expire when he spoke at the Code Conference in September.
Days After Twitter Poll, Elon Musk sells $5bn of Tesla stock
Since Oct. 28, when Tesla’s market cap topped $1 trillion, current and past board members such as chairwoman Robyn Denholm, Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk, Ira Ehrenpreis, and Antonio Gracias have sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Tesla stock.
Kimbal Musk’s transaction was the only one that wasn’t classified as a 10b5, or planned sale, among the insider sales.
Kimbal Musk sold $109 million worth of shares in a single day. A day before his brother’s Twitter poll, Kimbal Musk sold about $109 million worth of shares.
