Elon Musk exercises all of his Tesla stock options expiring in 2022
With the option exercise on 1.6-million shares on Tuesday, he has exercised all of the options on 22.8-million shares, which are due to expire in August
San Francisco — Tesla CEO Elon Musk has exercised all of his options expiring next year, signalling an end to his stock sales that triggered a fall in the share price of the world’s most valuable carmaker.
Musk said last week that he would reach his target of selling about 10% of his stake in Tesla “when the 10b preprogrammed sales complete,” likely referring to his options-related stock sales.
Since early November, he has exercised options expiring next year and sold a portion of Tesla stock to pay tax under a “rule 10b5-1" trading plan set up in September.
With the option exercise on 1.6-million shares on Tuesday, he has exercised all of the options on 22.8-million shares, which are due to expire in August. He also sold 934,090 shares for $1.02bn to pay for taxes, the filings showed.
“This rule 10b5-1 trading plan was completed on December 28, 2021,” Tesla said in filings on Tuesday.
Tesla shares lost about a quarter of their value after Musk in November asked his followers on Twitter if he should sell 10% of his holdings. They have rebounded to $1,088.47, but are still below the record closing high of $1,229.91 in November.
Close to 10% target
Musk has so far offloaded 15.7-million shares in Tesla, coming close to the 10% stake the billionaire has pledged to sell.
Out of the 15.7-million shares, 10.3-million were related to the options exercise. Musk sold an additional 5.4-million, cashing in on Tesla’s strong rally.
He has offloaded $16.4bn worth of shares since early November when he said he would sell 10% of his Tesla stocks if Twitter users agreed.
The Twitter poll came two days after Tesla shares hit a record high after a rally sparked by an order for Tesla cars from rental company Hertz.
Reuters