Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk has sold nearly $5 billion U.S. of the electric vehicle maker’s stock, according to financial filings.
Musk’s trust sold more than 3.5 million shares worth over $3.88 billion U.S. in a flurry of trades carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Musk still owns more than 166 million Tesla shares.
Earlier Wednesday evening, filings showed Musk is selling a separate block of Tesla shares via a plan that he set in motion on September 14 of this year. Those sales amount to more than 930,000 shares worth over $1.1 billion U.S.
The combined sales will raise $4.98 billion U.S. for Musk.
Musk sold the shares in part to satisfy tax obligations related to an exercise of stock options.
Before that sale plan was made public, Musk asked his 62.5 million Twitter followers to vote in an informal poll, telling them their vote would determine the future of his Tesla holdings.
Following the Twitter poll, shares of Tesla slumped more than 15% on Monday and Tuesday, before rebounding more than 4% yesterday (November 10).
Previously, Musk signaled that he was likely to sell “a huge block” of his options in the fourth quarter. At an appearance at the Code Conference in September, Musk said when his stock options expire at Tesla, his marginal tax rate would be over 50%.
Current and former board members including chairwoman Robyn Denholm, Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk, Ira Ehrenpreis and Antonio Gracias have offloaded hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Tesla shares since October 28 after Tesla’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion U.S.
Among those insider sales, Kimbal Musk’s was the only transaction that was not listed as a planned sale. Kimbal Musk sold around $109 million U.S. worth of his shares a day ahead of his brother’s Twitter poll.