Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have been selling their companies' stock.
xel Springer.
The stock sales by CEOs and insiders have reached a record high, with both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk selling close to $20 billion of their companies' shares.
After selling a chunk of his company's stock at the end of November, Musk has now sold $9.9 billion worth of stock in the company.
The sales of Bezos have been under the radar. The founder and chairman of Amazon has sold $10 billion worth of his company's stock, according to data from the company.
The data shows that the total for CEO and company-insider sales will reach a record $69 billion in 2021, even before the year has finished.
Sales are up almost one-third compared with last year's tally, and are 80% higher than the 10-year average according to investment research and data company Verity.
Walmart stock has been sold for $6.2 billion this year, while Larry Page and Sergey Brin have sold their shares in the company. Mark sold $4.5 billion of Meta stock.
Most of the stock trades were made before the scheduled time. Many executives are cashing in on the rise in stock prices during the Pandemic.
The S&P 500 has risen 23% in the year to date, and is up around 95% since the stock-market crash of March 2020. The US benchmark was even higher a week ago.
Since the March sell-off, the stock has climbed more than one hundred percent and closed at $1,095 on Wednesday. Musk's company can lead the green revolution in cars.
The number of public companies has increased over the past few years, thanks to the SPAC craze and a robust IPO and direct-listing market, according to the director of research at Verity.
Company executives are also selling to cover taxes. If Musk exercises his stock options, he will face big tax bills.
The majority of the stock sales by the CEO of the company have been to cover taxes after exercising options.
Musk has massive tax bills associated with options and so forth, so he has every right to take profits, according to the boss of Ark Invest.
Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capital executive, wondered if he should also be exiting the market after seeing Musk and Bezos sell stock.
"Two entrepreneurs who I've considered to be the smartest capital allocators of our generation are taking chips off the table," Palihapitiya wrote in a recent letter to investors.
He said on his show that he is confused about what to do in the market, given that assets are at a record high.
A former investment advisor to George Soros is analyzing the behavior of corporate insiders. He breaks down the 3 key parts of his strategy.
Business Insider has an original article.
