Elon Musk Sells $5 Billion in Tesla Stock as Share Price Plummets $200

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Elon Musk sold shares of Tesla Inc. valued at $5 billion during the early half of this week, according to regulatory filings made public Wednesday evening.

Musk exercised 2.1 million stock options on Monday valued at $2.5 billion, and sold more than 930,000 of them, according to the disclosures filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He sold more than 2 million additional shares on Tuesday and Wednesday, and told regulators he sold around 1 million “solely” to cover his tax bill on the shares, which he acquired at a strike price of $6.24 strike.

Tesla’s stock price dropped slightly as Musk released his holdings, from about $1,200 on Monday to just more than $1,000 on Wednesday. The transaction came after Musk asked his Twitter followers to vote on whether he should sell 10 percent of his holdings in order to be taxed on the proceeds, a move prompted by Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) proposal to tax billionaires who hold assets that they opt not to sell. Fifty-eight percent of users responded in the affirmative.

Musk’s disclosures noted he planned as of Sept. 14 to sell Monday’s share of his holdings, more than a month prior to the poll, so it isn’t clear whether he will include those in his accounting. He has held around 170 million shares in Tesla since 2012, and still held 17 percent of the company’s shares after the sale, which were valued at around $180 billion as of this week.