Elon Musk sells Tesla shares again; $3.58bn worth stocks sold
Elon Musk has sold Tesla shares again. Per a US Securities and Exchanges filing, the billionaire parted ways with 22 million shares of the automaker worth $3.58 billion. This brings the total Tesla stock sold by Musk over the past year to nearly $40 billion. Tesla shares have been on a downward slide throughout the year, hitting the lowest in two years this week.
Why does this story matter?
This year has been a bad one for tech companies. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has fallen by 29% this year so far. You'll be surprised to know that Tesla's stock price decline has eclipsed this at 55%. It has been in a free fall since Musk's Twitter takeover. The latest stock sale strengthens the impression that Musk doesn't care about Tesla anymore.
Musk owns only 13.4% of Tesla now
Between December 12-15, Musk sold 22 million shares of Tesla, the filing showed. This comes after another share sale by the CEO on November 9, where he sold 19.5 million shares of the electric vehicle maker worth $3.95 billion. The latest sale reduces Musk's shareholding in Tesla to 13.4%. He has sold stocks worth $39 billion since the company's shares peaked in November 2021.
It's not clear what prompted Musk's recent sale
It is unclear what's behind Musk's recent sale of Tesla shares. Earlier, he tweeted, "at risk of stating obvious, beware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially when Fed keeps raising rates." The sale could also be a way to raise money to prop up struggling Twitter. Musk remains Tesla's largest shareholder, but frequent stock sales could hurt his power in the company.
Tesla investors concerned about Twitter diverting Musk's attention
Musk's acquisition of Twitter earlier this year has made Tesla investors unhappy. They believe that the CEO is distracted by Twitter. His previous two sales of Tesla shares were related to the purchase of Twitter. Investors worry that his Twitter buy could divert his time away from Tesla and even lead to further offloading of shares to help the social media company.
