Elon Musk Sells Another $1B Worth Of Tesla Shares

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk sold $1 billion worth of the automaker’s shares on Tuesday, as per filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

What Happened: The filings, made Tuesday, reveal that Musk exercised options to purchase 2.15 million stock options at $6.24 each and sold 934,091 shares.

Tesla shares closed at $1,109.03 a share on Tuesday, which would value the sale at $1.03 billion. 

“The shares of common stock were sold solely to satisfy the reporting person's tax withholding obligations,” as per the filing.

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Why It Matters: Musk has been selling shares to meet tax withholding obligations.The sales came after the Tesla CEO conducted a poll among his Twitter followers on Nov. 6, asking them whether he should sell 10% of his stock.  However, it was reported the plan was set in motion months before the poll was held.

On Friday, it was reported the cumulative sales of Tesla shares by Musk for the week were valued at $5.7 billion.

The Tesla CEO does not receive a salary and is compensated through a stock options plan. Musk faces a $15 billion tax bill and would have likely have sold shares irrespective of the poll's results.

See Also: Elon Musk Sells Another $950M Worth Of Tesla Stock On Monday

As per the latest filings, the trading plan was adopted on Sept. 14, for the purpose of “an orderly sale” of shares related to the exercise of options scheduled to expire in 2022.

Musk said earlier this year that he only sells Tesla stock when there’s “no choice.”

Photo: Courtesy of Nvidia via Flickr