Elon Musk sells $930 million in Tesla stock to cover stock option taxes

Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he visits the construction site of Tesla's Gigafactory in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, August 13, 2021. Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold $930 million in shares on Monday to satisfy tax withholding obligations connected to the execution of stock options.

Musk sold 934,091 shares on Monday after executing options to purchase 2.1 million shares for $6.24 a share. He must pay income taxes on the difference between the exercise price and the shares' fair market value. Tesla stock ended the day at $1,013.39.

The millionaire has exercised his stock option twice in the last week. He sold an additional 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion on Monday after exercising options to purchase roughly 2.2 million shares.

According to the documents, the two option-related sales were initiated in September through a trading strategy that enables business insiders to schedule preplanned transactions.

According to a Tesla filing, as of the end of 2020, he held an option to purchase 22.86 million shares, which will expire in August of the following year.

Musk polled Twitter users on Nov. 6 about selling 10% of his ownership, causing Tesla's share price to fall after most respondents agreed with the sale. It was unclear how or if the trading strategy was connected to Musk's Twitter poll.

Publish : 2021-11-16 12:40:00

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