Elon Musk is the largest individual shareholder of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock. The company’s CEO has been one of the key investors in the company since the early days and is also important to the future of the company, something he is betting on with his personal money.
Here’s a look at how investors can see when Musk and other executives at Tesla are buying and selling the electric vehicle company shares.
Tesla Insider Trades: Benzinga’s Insider Trades tool shows buying and selling for stocks by executives. The Tesla page shows the sales by Musk in early August, which left him with 155,039,144 shares of Tesla.
After a three-for-one split, Musk now owns 465,117,432 shares of Tesla.
The Insider Trades page also shows that Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn sold company shares in September and October.
Several Tesla executives have also sold options in the second half of 2022. Benzinga previously flagged that there have been no purchases of Tesla common stock by executives since April 2021, outside of options trades.
By following the Benzinga Insider Trades page for Tesla, investors could see when Musk and other executives are selling shares of the company.
Executives can sell shares for a number of reasons, including the use of the capital elsewhere, for large purchases like a house or car, or to cover tax payments. Investors can also associate insider sales at a company as a sign that the company could be in for a period of lower growth and executives believe shares could pullback.
Seeing insider trades could help prevent further losses for investors.
Related Link: Why Haven't Any Tesla Executives Bought Stock This Year?
Why It’s Important: Musk sold shares of Tesla in August and attributed the sale to his pending acquisition of social media platform Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR).
“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,” Musk tweeted at the time.
Investors have pointed to Musk not being able to sell Tesla shares during a quiet period between the end of Tesla’s third quarter and when financial results were reported.
Tesla reported third-quarter financial results last week and Musk may not be open to selling shares. The Twitter deal could close by Oct. 28, leaving a small period of time for Musk to sell shares after earnings and before the deal closes. The sale of Tesla stock may not be made public for several weeks, which means a filing could come after the Twitter deal closes.
Musk may have been overly optimistic about the future of Tesla on its recent earnings call, saying the company could pass the combined valuation of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Saudi Aramco, the two largest companies in the world. Musk also shared updates on the Tesla Semi and a $25,000 robotaxi, two major future catalysts for the company.
Prior to selling shares of Tesla, Musk was active in sharing updates on the company and could have also been attempting to keep the price high before unloading a partial stake in the company.
