11/16/2021 06:47AM GMT
By: AnalysisWatch
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold $930 million worth of shares to meet tax-deduction obligations related to the exercise of stock options, according to US securities filings on Monday.
Musk sold 934,091 shares after exercising options to buy 2.1 million shares at $6.24 each on Monday. Tesla shares closed at $1,013.39. He will have to pay income taxes on the difference between the exercise price and the market value of the shares.
This is the second time in a week that the billionaire has exercised his stock option. Last Monday, he sold another 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion after exercising options to buy nearly 2.2 million shares.
The two option-related sales were initiated in September through a trading plan that allows company insiders to execute pre-planned transactions on a set schedule, the documents say.
Tesla's documents show that it had an option to buy 22.86 million shares by the end of 2020, which expires in August next year.
On 6 November, Musk polled Twitter users about selling 10% of his shares, which pushed Tesla's share price down after a majority on Twitter approved the sale. It was not clear how or if the trading plan was related to Musk's Twitter poll.