- Billionaire sells $3.6 billion slug in December
- Stock has lost more than 60% in 2022
- Musk stake has fallen from 17% to 13.4% in past year
Tesla (TSLA:NASDAQ) shareholders are getting increasingly frustrated with Elon Musk, after the billionaire entrepreneur sold another huge slug of shares in the electric vehicle maker, sparking another decline in the share price.
SEC filings showed that he sold shares worth about $3.6 billion between 12 and 14 of December, about 22 million in total, in multiple transactions at average sale prices ranging between $157.55 and $176.70.
Musk now directly owns 423,622,432 shares in the world’s largest EV maker by value, or about 13.4% of Tesla, down from about 17% a year ago, according to Refinitiv data.
Tesla shares have lost more than 32% since October 27, when Musk took over social media platform Twitter, and the stock is down more than 60% in 2022. The shares are seen opening nearly 3% off when trading resumes on Wall Street later today, at $152.38.
MASSIVE SHARE SALES THIS YEAR
This is Musk’s second sale following his Twitter purchase. Musk is daunted by the continuous pressure to turn Twitter’s fortunes around, with issues of ‘free speech’ cropping up repeatedly.
The lingering interest expense from the unsecured debt worth $13 billion taken on to buy Twitter may be the reason for the abrupt year-end share sale. Twitter’s annual interest expense amounts to $1.2 billion.
To add to Tesla’s woes, yesterday Goldman Sachs cut the quarterly EV delivery expectations. Tesla stock has been flirting with new lows ever since Musk announced the Twitter purchase in April 2022. The battered share price has also stripped Musk of his title as the world’s wealthiest man.
LITTLE INVESTORS GETTING HURT
‘The fact he is once again selling stock in Tesla means his actions are hurting the hundreds of thousands of shareholders who are primarily interested in the electric vehicle’s business, not the wild, unpredictable nature of its boss,’ said AJ Bell investment director, Russ Mould.
‘Musk selling another $3.6 billion worth of stock only served to pull down the price, thus penalising other investors who probably couldn’t give a hoot what happens with Twitter. They signed up to back an electric vehicle and power business and would naturally expect the company’s boss to be focused and have his mind always on the job. That certainly hasn’t been the case this year.’
DISCLAIMER: Financial services company AJ Bell referenced in this article owns Shares magazine. The author of this article (Steven Frazer) and the editor (James Crux) own shares in AJ Bell.
