Elon Musk offloaded more Tesla shares for $884 million as the stock slid, bringing his selling spree to $14 billion
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday dumped another chunk of the EV maker's shares, worth $884 million.
- He's now sold nearly $14 billion of Tesla stock since November 8, to pay for taxes on the exercise of options.
- Tesla stock has been on the decline recently, and is down 13% in the last month.
Elon Musk offloaded more Tesla shares on Thursday worth $884.1 million, bringing sales by the electric-vehicle maker's CEO to a total of nearly $14 billion since early November.
In his second round of sales this week, the billionaire disposed of 934,091 Tesla shares, regulatory filings showed. That's the same amount Musk sold on Monday, pulling in $906 million — about $22 million more than the haul four days later.
Tesla's stock has tumbled in recent weeks, and on Thursday, it slid alongside high-growth tech stocks, as investors weighed the Federal Reserve speeding up cutbacks in stimulus and its potential three interest-rate hikes in 2022.
Musk has been on a stock-selling spree since November 8, after polling his Twitter fans about whether to dump 10% of his Tesla holding. He got an overwhelming "yes" in response.
The EV maker's boss — recently named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine and the Financial Times — appears on pace to reach that 10% target in coming days, according to analysts. To hit it, Musk would need to sell another 4.1 million shares, they estimate, though Musk has not made the threshold clear.
But even before the poll, Musk's comments suggested he was already planning to sell large chunks of stock to cover tax obligations for exercising options that expire in August next year. At the same time he has been offloading shares, he has been tapping those options, granted in 2012.
Thursday's divestment was part of a prearranged plan, known as a 10b5-1, to cover tax costs on the exercise of 2.2 million options the same day, according to the filing.
He's now tapped 17 million of the 22.9 million stock options with the August deadline, while selling 12.9 million shares for $13.6 billion.
That option grant gives Musk the right to buy Tesla shares at a strike price of $6.24 — less than 1% of its current value.
Shares in Tesla fell into a bear market this week, down more than 20% from a recent high. The stock is down 12% in the past month, and was 5% lower at Thursday's close.
It was last trading 1.5% lower in Friday's premarket session. However, the world's most valuable carmaker is still up 31% for the year so far.
Below is a table detailing Musk's transactions since November 8, from Reuters:
| DATE | SHARES ACQUIRED | SHARES SOLD | GROSS PROCEEDS |
| NOV. 8 | 2.2 mln | ||
| NOV. 8 | 934,091 | $1.10 bln | |
| NOV. 9 | 3.1 mln | $3.35 bln | |
| NOV. 10 | 500,000 | $527.3 mln | |
| NOV. 11 | 639,737 | $687.3 mln | |
| NOV. 12 | 1.2 mln | $1.24 bln | |
| NOV. 15 | 2.1 mln | ||
| NOV. 15 | 934,091 | $930.7 mln | |
| NOV. 16 | 2.1 mln | ||
| NOV. 16 | 934,091 | $973.4 mln | |
| NOV. 23 | 2.2 mln | ||
| 934,091 | $1.05 bln | ||
| DEC. 2 | 2.1 mln | ||
| 934,091 | $1.01 bln | ||
| Dec.9 | 2.2 mln | ||
| 934,091 | $963.2 mln | ||
| Dec.13 | 2.1 mln | ||
| 934,091 | $906.5 mln | ||
| Dec. 16 | 2.2 mln | ||
| 934,091 | $884.1 mln | ||
| Total | 17.2 mln | 12.9 mln | $13.62 bln |