“There are still a few tranches left, but almost done,” Elon Musk said about his stock sales.
Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images
- Elon Musk sold Tesla 934,091 shares worth $929 million Wednesday, bringing the total for his selling spree to $15.4 billion.
- The Tesla CEO clarified Wednesday that he’s “almost done” offloading shares in the electric-car maker.
- Musk had said Tuesday he had hit his target of dumping 10% of his stake, puzzling those who saw a shortfall.
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Elon Musk has sold another batch of Tesla shares for a total of $15.4 billion, and revealed he still has a few more chunks left to offload — just a day after saying he had hit his 10% target.
On Wednesday, the Tesla CEO sold 934,091 shares in the electric-car maker worth $928.6 million, securities filings showed.
The sale brings Musk’s total for Tesla stock trimmed since early November to 14.77 million shares — short of the 17 million in sales seen as needed to meet his goal of shedding 10% of his stake.
The shortfall had already caused some confusion among Musk watchers, after the Tesla boss said Tuesday he had divested enough shares to meet that pledge. “I sold enough stock to get to around 10%, plus the option exercise stuff,” he told The Babylon Bee.
Those comments helped send Tesla shares close more than 7% higher on Wednesday, for the EV-maker’s best day of trading since November 1.
But later that day, Musk clarified that he’s not finished shedding Tesla stock.
Responding in a tweet to a headline saying he had hit his 10% target, he said: “When the 10b preprogrammed sales complete. There are still a few tranches left, but almost done.”
@elonmusk/Twitter
Musk’s stock sales are being made under a prearranged plan, called 10b5-1. He confirmed in Tuesday’s interview that these transactions are being carried out to cover taxes on the exercise of options that expire in August next year.
The billionaire told The Babylon Bee he needed to exercise options expiring in 2022 “no matter what,” when asked whether his divestments were prompted by the Twitter poll he posted in early November. The poll was on whether he should dump 10% of his Tesla holding, which got a resounding “yes”.
Of the 14.77 million shares he’s sold so far, 9.34 million were used to pay taxes related to his options exercise, according to the securities filings. Wednesday’s divestment was used to cover taxes on 2.11 million options exercised on the same day.
Even though Musk is in the process of dumping shares, he’s actually boosted his stake in Tesla. As of Thursday, he’s exercised about 21.3 million stock options at about $6.24 per share.
Tesla stock closed 7.4% higher on Wednesday at $1008.87 per share, and was last trading 0.5% lower at $1,003.60 per share in Thursday’s premarket session. The EV-maker’s shares are up 42% so far this year.
Separately on Tuesday, Musk poked fun at hype around the metaverse and said he doesn’t buy into it. “I think we’re far from disappearing into the metaverse,” he said. “This sounds just kind of buzzword-y.”
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