Tesla CEO ELON musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold nearly 900,000 shares of the electric car maker’s stock, raising more than USD 1.1 billion that will go toward paying tax obligations for stock options, after making a promise on Twitter.
The sale, disclosed in two regulatory filings late Wednesday, will cover tax obligations for stock options granted to Musk in September. They exercised options to buy more than 2.1 million shares for US$6.24 each. The company’s stock closed at USD 1,067.95 per share on Wednesday.
According to the form filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the transactions were “automatically effective” as part of a trading plan adopted on September 14 to sell options expiring next year. About two months ago he pitched the sale idea on Twitter.
After the transaction, Musk still owns about 170 million Tesla shares. According to data provider FactSet, Musk was Tesla’s largest shareholder as of June, holding about 17 percent of the company. According to Forbes, he is the richest person in the world with a net worth of around USD 282 billion, most of which is in Tesla stock.
Last weekend, Musk said he would sell his 10 percent stake in the company, worth more than USD 20 billion, based on the results of a survey conducted on Twitter. The sales tweets kicked off the stock’s selloff on Monday and Tuesday, but improved somewhat on Wednesday. Shares rose 2.6 percent to US$1,096 in extended trading on Wednesday, and they are up more than 50 percent this year.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said it appears Musk will begin selling shares by the end of the year. “The question for investors will be whether he sells his entire 10 per cent stake in the coming months or is torn apart during 2022,” Ives said in a note to investors.
Ives calculated that Musk has about $10 billion in taxes due due to stock options that are vested next summer.
The sometimes abrasive and unpredictable Musk said he proposed selling the stock because some Democrats are pressuring billionaires to pay taxes when the price of the shares they own goes up, even if they don’t sell any shares. be. However, the word on unrealized gains, also known as the “billionaire tax”, was dropped from President Joe Biden’s budget, which is still being negotiated.
“So much has been made of recent unrealized gains as a means of tax avoidance, so I propose to sell 10 percent of my Tesla stock,” he tweeted Saturday afternoon. “Do you support it?”
Tesla doesn’t pay Musk a cash salary, but it has received huge stock options. “I only own the stock, thus the only way for me personally to pay taxes is to sell the stock,” Musk tweeted.
Tesla is based in Palo Alto, California, although Musk has announced that it will move its headquarters to Texas.
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