Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold $1.09 billion worth Tesla shares following a Twitter poll in which his followers voted for him to sell 10% of his stock. We are now at 57.9%, 42.1%, and we voted for.
Multiple filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on Wednesday, show that Musk sold 934,091 shares from more than 2.1million options for $6.24 per share. As Tesla shares fell by 4.8% Monday, Musk's shares were sold for between $1,200 to $1,100 per share.
Musk stated in the regulatory filing that he sold a portion of his stake to meet tax obligations related to stock options exercise. The CEO will be subject to income tax on stock gains of $6.24 per share in 2012. This is absurd considering the stock price today, which closed at $1,067.95 Wednesday. Musk will be facing a tax bill in excess of $15 million if he decides to exercise these options.
This is not surprising. Musk had previously stated that he would sell large blocks of Tesla stock publicly. The SEC filing shows that Musk planned to sell the stock by September 14. His Twitter show is just that, a show. In September, Musk also stated that a large part of his stock options would expire on August 2022, and that he would sell them in Q4.
Musk still owns over 170,000,000 Tesla shares. This is approximately 17% of his ownership.
