Elon Musk is making headlines once again. This time, it is not because of Twitter. As Tesla’s market cap dipped below $500 billion, Musk’s ‘world’s richest person’ title tumbled. Amidst this, news of Musk selling off more Tesla shares came to light.
As per a US securities filing, the CEO of the electric-vehicle maker had sold shares worth $3.38 billion.
Musk did not mention the motive pertaining to his latest sale. However, on Tuesday, the Twitter CEO tweeted,
“At risk of stating obvious, beware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially when Fed keeps raising rates.”
Following this, the total Tesla stocks sold by Musk over the past year surged to nearly $40 billion.
It should be noted that Musk initially started selling Tesla shares to fund his $44 billion Twitter acquisition. Back in November, Musk got rid of $3.95 billion worth of Tesla shares. The details and reason behind this sale remained unknown.
Musk sold a total of 9.6 million shares in April, for a total value of $8.5 billion. The CEO of Tesla once more sold 7.9 million shares for $6.9 billion in August.
The Tesla CEO had even stressed that he was trying to avoid the sale of Tesla stock. He previously stated,
“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.”
Elon Musk garners backlash for this sale
As mentioned earlier, Tesla shares have been on a downward spiral. It was even noted that Tesla shares had hit their lowest level in over two years.
The stock of Tesla, the most valuable automaker in the world, has underperformed other major automakers and tech firms this year due to investor concerns that Musk’s purchase of Twitter may have taken his attention away from Tesla. Additionally, it was speculated that he may sell more Tesla shares to help the faltering social media company.
KoGuan Leo, the third largest individual shareholder of Tesla was visibly enraged by the same and said,
“Are we merely Elon’s foolish bag holders?”
Tesla shares were dropping by 3.2 percent and were at $155.88 per share. This is the lowest that it has declined since November 18, 2020.