- Elon Musk offloaded another $906 million of Tesla shares Monday, new filings showed.
- He sold the shares to pay taxes after exercising 2.1 million options at $6.24 a share.
- Tesla stock has been hit hard in recent weeks, and officially entered a bear market Monday.
Elon Musk sold another $906 million worth of Tesla shares Monday, filings showed, taking his total sales since early November to almost $13 billion.
It came as Tesla was hit by a general sell-off in tech stocks and electric-vehicle makers Monday. It officially fell into a bear market — 20% down from recent highs.
Musk sold 934,091 shares to cover taxes after exercising 2.1 million options, according to filings from Monday evening. The sales were part of a prearranged plan known as a 10b5-1.
The Tesla CEO has been selling stock at a rapid rate since asking his Twitter followers whether he should sell 10% of his stake in the world's most valuable car company, and receiving a resounding "yes" in reply.
Yet Musk's comments and regulatory filings suggest he had always planned to exercise options he was granted in 2012, which expire in August 2022.
He told a conference in September that a "huge block of options will sell" in the fourth quarter. And filings show that he put in place the 10b5-1 plan, to start exercising options and selling some to cover taxes, earlier that month.
However, Musk has also been selling some of his personal stock of the electric-vehicle maker. Overall, he's now sold almost 12 million shares.
It's as of yet unclear what exactly Musk meant by 10% of his Tesla holding. Before his Twitter poll he was the beneficial owner of about 23% of the company, holding roughly 170.5 million shares and 73.5 million exercisable options, according to a June filing.
Musk still has more than 7 million options from his 2012 pay deal to exercise before August 2022. They give him the right to buy Tesla shares at a price of $6.24, less than 1% of Monday's closing price of $966.41.
Tesla stock has fallen sharply over the last few weeks and is now officially in bear-market territory. Tech stocks have struggled as the Federal Reserve has suggested it will cut back on stimulus sooner than expected.
Tesla closed Monday at $966.41, more than 21% below a record closing high of $1,229.91 in early November.
"Tesla's stock initially held up fairly well, given Musk's announcement that he was considering selling 10%," Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, told Insider.
"Now the Tesla sell-off is intensifying as some investors gravitate to other [electric vehicle] plays that have more upside potential, such as Lucid, Rivian, Apple."
On Monday, the Tesla and SpaceX boss was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.
He's also the world's wealthiest person, with a net worth of $254 billion, according to Bloomberg's billionaires index. Musk rocketed to the top of the list during the pandemic, when Tesla stock rose dramatically as investors bet the electric carmaker would dominate the future of transport.
Here is a table from Reuters outlining Musk's share sales so far:
| Date | Shares acquired | Shares sold | Gross proceeds |
| November 8 | 2.2 million | ||
| November 8 | 934,091 | $1.10 billion | |
| November 9 | 3.1 million | $3.35 billion | |
| November 10 | 500,000 | $527.3 million | |
| November 11 | 639,737 | $687.3 million | |
| November 12 | 1.2 million | $1.24 billion | |
| November 15 | 2.1 million | ||
| November 15 | 934,091 | $930.7 million | |
| November 16 | 2.1 million | ||
| November 16 | 934,091 | $973.4 million | |
| November 23 | 2.15 million | ||
| 934,091 | $1.05 billion | ||
| December 2 | 2.1 million | ||
| 934,091 | $1.01 billion | ||
| December 9 | 2.17 million | ||
| 934,091 | $963.2 million | ||
| December 13 | 2.13 million | ||
| 934,091 | $906.5 mln | ||
| Total | 14.96 million | 11.97 million | $12.74 billion |
Dit artikel is oorspronkelijk verschenen op z24.nl