Musk sells more Tesla shares; stock drops in early trading
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold another chunk of his stock on Thursday after pledging on Twitter to liquidate 10% of his holdings in the electric car maker.
Musk sold about 640,000 shares for roughly $687.3 million, according to two filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. So far this week, the eccentric CEO has sold about 5.1 million shares worth about $5.69 billion.
About $1.1 billion of the proceeds will go toward paying tax obligations for stock options granted to Musk in September. The options are part of a compensation package Musk and Tesla agreed to in 2018 that provided the CEO with options if Tesla hit certain financial targets. The company is now profitable and worth more than $1 trillion.
Filings from Wednesday disclosed that Musk exercised options to buy just over 2.1 million shares for $6.24 each. Wedbush Analyst Daniel Ives has calculated that Musk has more than $10 billion in taxes coming due on stock options that vest next summer.
Musk's sales so far amount to just over 3% of his stake in Tesla. He still owns about 167.5 million shares, or just under 17% of the company, according to the SEC filings and data provider FactSet.
Last weekend, Musk said he would sell 10% of his holdings in the company, based on the results of a poll he conducted on Twitter. The sale tweets prompted heavy selling in the stock Monday and Tuesday. Shares were down another 2.2% in early trading on Friday, and are down about 15% for the week.
Musk is Tesla's largest shareholder and is the wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of around $278.7 billion.
Tesla Inc. is based in Palo Alto, California, although Musk has announced it will move its headquarters to Texas.