Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk sold $1.02 billion worth of Tesla Inc. shares on Tuesday, completing stock sales related to his options set to expire next year, according to securities filings.
"This rule 10b5-1 trading plan was completed on December 28, 2021," the filings said, referring to Musk's options-related sales set up in September via a trading plan.
The billionaire said on Dec. 22 that he would meet his target of selling about 10% of his stake in Tesla, when he is done with his "preprogrammed" sales.
"There are still a few tranches left, but almost done," he tweeted at that time, reported Reuters.
Latest Transaction
Musk exercised an option on Tuesday to buy 1.6 million shares of Tesla and sold 934,090 shares for $1.02 billion to pay for taxes associated with the option exercise, the filings showed.
With the latest transaction, he has exercised all of the options to buy 22.86 million stocks, which are set to expire next year, according to Reuters' calculation.
In November, Musk had sold about $5 billion in shares, days after he polled Twitter users about selling 10% of his stake.
In his first share sale since 2016, Musk's trust sold nearly 3.6 million shares in Tesla, worth around $4 billion, while he also sold another 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion after exercising options to acquire nearly 2.2 million shares.
The 4.5 million shares equate to about 3% of his total holdings in the electric vehicle manufacturer, which makes up the vast part of his estimated $281.6 billion fortune, according to Forbes.
20 Million Stock Options to Expire
The additional share sales were separate and provide Musk with sizeable reserves of cash, given his wealth is largely tied to his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk has more than 20 million further stock options that are due to expire in August of next year.
While Tesla has lost close to $150 billion in market value in November, retail investors have been net buyers of the stock. Some 58% of Tesla trade orders on Fidelity's brokerage website on Wednesday were for purchases, rather than sales.
