Tesla CEO Elon Musk is at it again selling shares of his electric vehicle company, per a regulatory filings. Since Friday, the executive has sold 7.9 million shares, which totals about $6.9 billion. This is the first time Musk has sold shares in Tesla since April, when he disposed of 9.6 million shares, worth about $8.5 billion.
Musk, usually an avid tweeter, has been mum on social media as to why he’s shedding his stake in the company yet again. Over the last ten months, Musk has sold around $32 billion worth of stock in Tesla.
Tesla shares were down 2.44% today but are trading relatively flat in after-hours, suggesting the stock sales are yet to have an effect on Tesla’s share price. Tesla’s stock took a hit late last year when Musk sold off more than $16 billion worth of sales after polling his Twitter fans on whether he should trim his stake, a move that got him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
When Musk sold stake back in April, TechCrunch mulled the possibility of the executive putting the money towards his $44 billion Twitter acquisition. Last month, Musk told Twitter he’s killing the deal because he believed the social media company to be misleading in its bot calculations. However, over the weekend, the executive waffled a bit, tweeting: “If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms. However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.”
The recent insider trading could also have something to do with Tesla’s plans to issue a three-to-one stock split, which was approved by Tesla shareholders last week. We’ll keep an eye out for Musk buying back those shares on the cheap once the split goes through.
