- Kimbal Musk sold 75,000 Tesla shares worth about $28 million, filings show.
- The disposals by Elon Musk’s brother reduced his stake by almost 5% to 1.46 million shares.
- Tesla stock is up almost 40% since the election but has slid 13% since the start of January.
Elon Musk’s brother sold Tesla stock worth about $28 million in a single day, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed on Monday.
Kimbal Musk, a Tesla director, cashed in 75,000 shares of the electric vehicle company on February 6. The latest disposals trimmed his stake by nearly 5% to 1.46 million shares — worth about $514 million at Monday’s close.
The Tesla CEO’s younger brother cofounded the software company Zip2 with him in 1995, but has since focused on other ventures including restaurants, urban farming, and outdoor classrooms.
Tesla shares have surged almost 40% since the US election on November 5, which Elon Musk helped Donald Trump win by spending more than $250 million in support of his campaign, speaking at his rallies, and marshaling his social media followers to vote for the former president.
Investors wagered that Elon Musk’s role as a trusted advisor to the president and the head of the quasi-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would translate into light-touch regulation of his companies and supportive policies.
Yet Tesla shares have dropped 13% this year even as the broader stock market has risen, fueling a near-$40 billion decline in Elon Musk’s net worth, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He remains the world’s richest person by some margin at $395 billion — $142 billion of his nearest rival, Mark Zuckerberg.
A Stifel analyst said in a recent note that Elon Musk’s government work appears to be souring consumers on the Tesla chief and his company, and that could weigh on sales.
Elon Musk has long argued that Tesla is more than an automaker. He’s especially touted its artificial intelligence efforts, saying they’ll lead to huge profits from future products such as Optimus humanoid robots and full self-driving (FSD) vehicles.
Insider stock transactions are closely watched on Wall Street as they can indicate sentiment about a company. If directors jettison large numbers of shares, it could signal that they expect the company’s share price to plunge and want to cash out before it does.
Insiders may sell stock for many reasons including diversification, retirement planning, or needing a lump sum of cash to pay taxes or cover a large expense.
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