CEO Elon Musk declared in an interview with the Babylon Bee that he has ‘sold enough stock’ to offload 10% of his holdings. The Tesla CEO committed to selling off 10% of his stock after a Twitter poll. Tesla (TSLA) shares moved up after the interview went live.
Earlier this week, Musk tweeted out that his 2021 tax bill will total $11 billion.
For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2021
As per Securities and Exchange Commission filings on Tuesday, Musk sold another 583,611 shares worth around $528 million. This takes his overall total to 13.5 million shares, according to The Street.
However, Musk also exercised options to buy 16.4 million shares. This option allows Musk to purchase the shares at 2012 prices, at a strike price of just $6.24 per share.
According to estimates by Bloomberg Billionaires Index, this latest sell-off and the exercised options put Musk’s worth around $245 billion.
Since Musk’s Twitter poll on if he should sell off 10% of his stock or not on November 6, Tesla stock has fallen around 23%. Only a few days before, on October 25, Tesla passed the $1 trillion market value threshold.
A Tesla shareholder is suing Musk and Tesla over the Twitter poll and the effect on the stock.
Interestingly, short interest in Tesla remains elevated. Recent data from S3 Partners shows that bets against Tesla are around $28 billion. This represents 3.38% of the stock’s outstanding float.
However, in an update Elon Musk muddied the waters even more. He responded to a story reporting this with this:
This assumes completion of the 10b sales
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2021
What this means, we are not sure. More to follow on this as things develop!
UPDATE: Musk has clarified on Twitter that he is not done selling, but is almost there.
When the 10b preprogrammed sales complete. There are still a few tranches left, but almost done.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2021
You can watch the full Babylon Bee interview below.
