By
Svetlana Soroka
April 18th, 2024
Tesla stock closed down 5% following the news of Musk’s TSLA shares sales.
Elon Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), has sold more of his Tesla shares. According to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk sold 934,091 of Tesla shares, worth $906.5 million. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO have been offloading his TSLA holdings to meet his tax obligations.
Last month, Musk sold $5 billion worth of Tesla stock subject to a Twitter poll. The businessman has asked his Twitter followers to choose whether or not he should let go of 10% of his TSLA holdings. He gave options for either a “Yes” or a “No, promising to abide by the poll result. At the end of the poll, there were about 3.5 million responses, with 57,9% voting “Yes.”
Following the Twitter poll, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Ron Wyden said in a tweet:
“Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax.”
However, Musk is against the billionaire’s tax and the Build Back Better spending by US president Joe Biden. On another occasion, the CEO voiced his stance against the billionaire’s tax. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Musk stated that zeroing out all the billionaires in the US is not an answer to the deficit in the country. He further cursed about the “anti-billionaire” sentiment across the US.
TSLA Down as Musk Sells More Tesla Shares
Tesla stock closed down 5% following the news of Musk’s shares sales. Currently down 1.16% in after-hours trading, the company is trading at $955.20 after closing at $966.41. Tesla has advanced 52.61% in the last twelve months, growing nearly 37% in its year-to-date session. In the last three months, the automaker has pumped 29.81%. Despite the gains, Tesla has been recording losses for the past month as the company has declined over 8% during the same period. Additionally, the EV maker slumped 8.11% in the last five days.
Apart from the recent sell-off, Musk has also exercised options to buy 2.13 million shares. The shares will come at the price of $624 per share granted to him through a 2012 compensation package.
In December, Musk has constantly sold Tesla shares, equaling about $963.2 million and $1.01 billion worth of stock. In total, the CEO has sold over $2.87 billion since the month started. Last month, he also sold Tesla stock totaling $9.85 billion.
Apart from Musk, some other Tesla executives have also sold Tesla shares and at the same time exercised options in December. These execs incur the company’s chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn and chief accounting officer, Taneja Vaibhav. Another of the top executives is the senior vice president of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, Drew Baglino.