Tesla Stock Plummets Following Musk’s $3.6 Billion Sale

Recently, Tesla has been the focus of significant insider trading activity as CEO Elon Musk has sold off millions of shares. Musk divested 22 million shares, totaling approximately $3.6 billion, between Monday and Wednesday of this week. Following this news, Tesla’s stock experienced a 14.5% decline, closing at $150.23—its lowest level since 2020.

So far this year, Musk has sold more than 94 million shares of Tesla, according to VerityData. His average sale price stands at $243.46 per share, yielding around $23 billion from these transactions. In total, Musk has offloaded nearly $40 billion worth of Tesla stock since the price peak in November 2021.

Gary Black, managing partner of Future Fund LLC, which holds about $50 million in Tesla, commented on the situation, suggesting that market sentiment indicates the Tesla brand has suffered due to the ongoing Twitter controversies. Wedbush analysts echoed this sentiment, stating that Musk seems to be leveraging Tesla for financing Twitter amid declining advertising revenue and escalating controversies.

On the insider buying front, SoFi Technologies CEO Anthony Noto recently revealed a purchase of approximately $5 million, acquiring 1,134,065 shares over several days at prices ranging from $4.36 to $4.58. This led to a 3.6% increase in share value during pre-market trading on Wednesday, with stocks peaking at an 11% intraday gain before closing the week up 7.7%.

Wheels Up Experience CEO Kenneth Dichter also made a notable purchase, acquiring 400,000 shares valued at over $400,000 between December 14 and 15 at prices from $1.1253 to $1.1474, resulting in a 7.7% increase in share price.

Additionally, on Friday, NRG Energy CEO Mauricio Gutierrez bought 15,000 shares for $480,450 at a price of $32.03, increasing his total holdings to 1,111,368 shares. Four directors on NRG’s board also purchased a combined total of 30,000 shares at prices between $31.32 and $31.71. NRG shares, however, closed down 2.5% on Friday and saw a 4.2% decline for the week.

Lions Gate Director Gordon Crawford acquired 100,000 shares at $6.177 on December 14, but the shares saw a slight decline over the week.

This report was contributed by Senad Karaahmetovic.