Tesla stock selloff continues as Elon Musk sells $3.6B worth of EV maker shares

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:) are down almost 3% after CEO Elon Musk sold a further 22 million shares of the electric vehicle (EV) maker. The sales were worth about $3.6 billion.

Musk was selling Tesla stock between Monday and Wednesday this week, according to the filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“At risk of stating obvious, beware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially when Fed keeps raising rates,” Musk tweeted earlier this week.

Musk sold more than 94 million Tesla shares so far this year, according to the research firm VerityData. His average exit price is $243.46 per share, meaning he generated almost $23B from sales. Overall, Musk sold nearly $40B in Tesla stock since an all-time high in November 2021.

This is despite Musk telling his Twitter followers in April this year that “no further TSLA sales planned after today.”

Tesla stock price is now indicated to open at around $152.50 – the lowest it traded since November 2020. Musk’s deal to take Twitter private has weighed on Tesla shares in the past 8 months with some long-term shareholders calling for Musk to keep his focus on his EV business.

“My 2 cents: The market voted today that the $TSLA brand has been negatively impacted by the Twitter drama. Where before EV buyers were proud to drive their Teslas to their friends or show off Teslas in their driveways, now the Twitter controversy is hurting Tesla’s brand equity,” Gary Black, managing partner of the Future Fund LLC, which owns roughly $50M worth of Tesla, tweeted earlier this week.

Based on yesterday’s close, Tesla stock is down 55.5% year-to-date (YTD).

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