Elon Musk offloaded $930 million in Tesla shares Monday, and he will likely continue selling stocks. The latest sale brings the amount the Tesla CEO has sold to $7.8 billion.
Monday’s sales were part of a stock-selling plan, and sales take place automatically. Musk needed to exercise stock options that he holds before they expire next August.
Last week, Musk exercised 2.2 million options and sold 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion. Then on Monday, he exercised an additional 2.1 million options and again sold 934,000 shares. The difference in the amount of money he received for the sales stems from Tesla’s stock price drop. The stock has dipped due to the sales.
Once he exercises all the options set to expire, Musk could be hit with a $10 billion tax bill.
Before the sales began, Musk polled Twitter about selling off his 10% stake in the company. Users mostly agreed with the sale, and Tesla’s share price dipped. It’s not clear what effect the Twitter poll had on the trading plan.
The total sales equal less than 5% of Musk’s Tesla shares so far. It is predicted that he will offload more stock, especially with options to buy an additional 18.6 million shares, which will expire in August.
