Financial filings on Wednesday revealed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold about $5 billion in the company’s stock, leaving him with over 166 million shares.
A burst of trades done on Tuesday and Wednesday sold the CEO’s over 3.5 million shares worth more than $3.88 billion. The transactions were not set sales, as they were not labeled as 10b5.
Filings on earlier Wednesday evening said that Musk is putting another block of Tesla shared on sale through a plan that he scheduled on Sept. 14 this year.
The selling of these shares forms part of Musk’s compliance with tax obligations linked to an exercise of stock choices.
Musk first created a poll on Twitter for his 62.4 million followers to vote before the sale plan was announced publicly. He told his followers that their voice would dictate Tesla holdings’ future.
The filings show that Musk was aware that a part of his shares was set for sale this week.
Tesla’s shares have dropped over 15 percent over Monday and Tuesday following the Twitter poll. On Wednesday, it rebounded over 4 percent, and on Thursday, the stock jumped higher in after-hours trade.
Personally, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, said that he did not want to see the CEO sell.
“Individuals like Elon Musk, like Jeff Bezos have transformed life, and we want to keep them in control of their companies, as long as they’ve got the energy and the ambition to keep moving the business forward,” Griffin, who spoke at the DealBook Online Summit on Wednesday, said.
