Reuters – Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), has sold $930 million worth of stock to meet withholding obligations related to the exercise of stock options, U.S. securities filings showed Monday.
Musk sold 934,091 shares after exercising options to buy 2.1 million shares on Monday for $6.24 each. Tesla shares closed at $1,013.39. He must pay income tax on the difference between the strike price and the fair market value of the shares.
It is the second time in a week that the billionaire has exercised his stock option. Last Monday, he sold an additional 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion after exercising options to acquire nearly 2.2 million shares.
The two option-related sales were set up in September through a trading plan that allows company insiders to establish pre-scheduled trades on a schedule, the filings said.
At the end of 2020, he had an option to buy 22.86 million shares, which expire in August next year, according to a Tesla file.
On Nov. 6, Musk polled Twitter users about the sale of 10% of his stake, pushing Tesla’s stock price down after a majority on Twitter said they agreed to the sale. It was not clear how or if the trading plan was related to Musk’s Twitter poll.
