Musk Sells Additional Tesla Shares; Stock Falls 6%

Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has done it again. This time, the world’s richest man has sold 934,091 shares for $963.2 million, as per a December 9 filing. Moreover, Musk exercised stock options to buy 2,165,241 million shares at $6.24 per share. The news sent shares spiraling down 6.1% to close at $1,003.80.

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Total Share Sale and Options Exercised

What started as a light-hearted Twitter (TWTR) poll on November 6, when Musk asked his followers whether he should sell Tesla shares to pay taxes, has ended up being a nightmare of sorts.

So far, Musk has sold about 11.03 million shares valued at $11.82 billion, and has exercised stock options to buy about 12.3 million shares. In effect, Musk has actually increased his shareholding in the electric vehicle maker.

Eventually, he has around 6 million shares left to be sold out of the estimated 17 million (his 10% stake).

Musk sold his stock to pay off an impending tax liability that is expected to arise in the second half of 2022 on millions of stock options due in August 2022.

Since the day Musk started the poll, Tesla stock has lost more than 17% in value. The sell-off in the shares reflects investors’ panic regarding the impact of the share sales on their holdings.

With more share sales expected in the coming months, investors are hoping for this ordeal to end soon.

The popularity of both Tesla and its CEO is no hidden secret. Tesla is one of the most trending stocks in the U.S., and its followers are very vocal about their support and/or criticism on the Tesla stock forum.

Wall Street View

The Wall Street community has a Moderate Buy rating on Tesla stock based on 13 Buys, 6 Holds, and 6 Sells. The average Tesla price target of $982.96 implies 2.08% downside potential to current levels. Shares have gained 60.1% over the past year.

Website Traffic

TipRanks’ Website Traffic tool, which uses data from SEMrush Holdings (SEMR), the world’s biggest website usage monitoring service, offers insight into TSLA’s performance.

In November, Tesla website traffic recorded a 1.20% year-over-year increase in monthly visits. Similarly, year-to-date website traffic growth increased by 1.67% compared to the same period last year.