By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded 2.3% lower in Monday’s premarket after news late on Friday that CEO Elon Musk continued to unload the shares.
Musk sold 1.2 million shares on Friday, bringing his total sales for the week to 6.4 million, worth a cumulative $6.9 billion.
Musk, who faces a large tax bill after exercising options awarded him as compensation, had hinted the previous weekend that he would sell up to $20 billion worth of stock. around one-tenth of his overall holding. As such, the overhang in the stock is still far from resolved. Various reports peg Musk’s tax bill at $10 billion, suggesting that he may have to sell some more stock yet to meet his obligations.
Musk has used the episode to snipe at Democratic lawmakers, who aim to include a levy on unrealized stock gains to help fund their spending plans. On Sunday, he trolled Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders in response to the Senator’s tweet that said, “We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period.”
“Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word,” Musk wrote.
Musk has more than 20 million further stock options that are due to expire in August of next year, according to Reuters. Most of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stock and the unlisted SpaceX.