Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc, has exercised all of his options that expire next year, putting an end to his stock sales that caused the world’s most valuable carmaker’s stock price to plummet.
Musk said last week that he will meet his goal of selling approximately 10% of his Tesla stock “after the 10b preprogrammed sales finish,” presumably referring to his stock option sales.
Under a “rule 10b5-1” trading plan drawn up in September, he has exercised options expiring next year and sold a portion of Tesla stock to pay taxes since early November.
He has executed all of the options on 22.8 million shares, which are set to expire in August, with the option exercise on 1.6 million shares on Tuesday. According to the documents, he also sold 934,090 shares for $1.02 billion to pay taxes.
Tesla announced in filings on Tuesday that the “rule 10b5-1 trading plan” was completed on December 28, 2021.
Tesla shares have lost almost a quarter of their value since Musk asked his Twitter followers in November if he should sell 10% of his ownership. They’ve recovered to $1,088.47, but remain below November’s record closing high of $1,229.91.
GETTING CLOSE TO THE TARGET OF 10%
So far, Musk has sold 15.7 million Tesla shares, coming close to the 10% stake the entrepreneur has promised to sell.
The options exercise accounted for 10.3 million of the 15.7 million shares. Musk sold an extra 5.4 million shares, profiting from Tesla’s stellar performance.
Since early November, when he stated he’d sell 10% of his Tesla stock if Twitter people agreed, he’s sold $16.4 billion worth of stock.
The Twitter survey was conducted two days after Tesla stock reached a new high following a spike prompted by a Hertz order for Tesla cars.
