Elon Musk Just Offloaded Another $1 Billion In Stock
Just hours after we reported that Wedbush’s Dan Ives raised his price target on Tesla to $1,400, we found out that Elon Musk has offloaded yet another $1 billion in stock.
The Tesla CEO sold the 934,090 shares, according to filings published late on Tuesday night.
Additionally, Musk exercised a grant to buy 1.6 million shares at a strike price of just $6.24 per share from a compensation plan dating back to 2012, CNBC reported.
Musk’s total holdings have gone from about 170.5 million shares to over 177 million shares, due to exercising options, the same report says. Musk says that the Tesla stock selling spree has been to help offset the tax bill on those options.
Musk has sold over $15 billion in stock in a month, Reuters reported last Thursday. Tesla investors don’t seem to upset by the news and the stock has held up mysteriously well during the selling spree.
The Tesla CEO said on Twitter last Wednesday that he was “almost done” selling stock. “This assumes completion of the 10b sale,” Musk Tweeted last Wednesday. “There are still a few tranches left, but almost done,” he continued.
“I sold enough stock to get to around 10% plus the option exercise stuff and I tried to be extremely literal here,” Musk said last Tuesday during an interview with The Babylon Bee, while sipping a White Claw. Musk also commented that he needed to exercise options that were expiring next year “no matter what.”
Wedbush’s Ives wrote yesterday that China is “key” for Tesla’s bull thesis in 2022. He says it’s worth $400 per share in the upcoming year. Interestingly enough, there have been questions raised about Tesla suing its critics in China, which we reported on just weeks ago.
He also wrote that China is expected to represent 40% of deliveries for Tesla in the new year, despite the continued headwind of a chip/component shortage, which he called a “transitory” issue.
Tesla is up 54% this year, helping Musk achieve the coveted title of “world’s wealthiest person” in the process.
Tyler Durden Wed, 12/29/2021 – 08:44
