Elon Musk continued to sell Tesla Inc. shares for the fifth week in a row, bringing him closer to his commitment to sell 10% of his stake.
According to regulatory filings dated Thursday, the billionaire entrepreneur sold another 934,091 shares for $963 million to pay taxes on the exercise of 2.2 million options. That takes the total number of shares sold to around 11 million since he asked his Twitter followers last month if he should sell one-tenth of his Tesla investment.
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While the Tesla stock reductions and option trades began in response to the online survey, Musk had previously stated in September that he expected to exercise a large portion of his contracts before the end of the year and had established a trading strategy. He would need to sell another 6 million shares to reach the 10% criteria, which represents 17 million shares, without taking into account his exercisable options.
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Because he received options as his major source of compensation, he is susceptible to a substantial income-tax hit whenever he exercises them.
On the new shares he has acquired since November 8, he owes around $5 billion in federal income taxes. He will also very likely owe some state taxes. According to the filings, Musk sold Tesla shares especially to cover the tax impact. Musk intends to execute further options that will expire next year.
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Musk is holding the majority of the shares he is acquiring rather than selling them entirely, as other executives have been known to do when exercising options, including Tesla’s chair, Robyn Denholm.
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Tesla shares have dropped 18% from their high on November 4 as Musk liquidated his holdings. He is still the world’s richest individual, with a fortune of $266 billion, which has increased by $110 billion this year alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.