5 hot insider trades: Tesla stock pummeled on Musk's $3.6 billion sale

Among the biggest insider trades this past week, more Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) drama dominated with word that CEO Elon Musk had unloaded millions of additional shares.

Musk sold 22 million Tesla shares, or about $3.6 billion worth, between Monday and Wednesday this week, as first reported on InvestingPro+. Tesla took a slide on the news, and ultimately dropped 14.5% for the week to $150.23, its lowest close since 2020.

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

Gary Black, managing partner of the Future Fund LLC, which owns roughly $50M worth of Tesla, tweeted: “My 2 cents: The market voted today that the $TSLA brand has been negatively impacted by the Twitter drama." Wedbush wrote in a client note, "The Twitter nightmare continues as Musk uses Tesla as his own ATM machine to keep funding the red ink at Twitter which gets worse by the day as more advertisers flee the platform with controversy increasing driven by Musk."

In insider buys, SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI) CEO, Anthony Noto, disclosed after the close Tuesday a roughly $5 million purchase of 1,134,065 shares made from 12/09/22-12/13/22 at prices from $4.36-$4.58. Shares gained 3.6% in pre-open trading Wednesday on word of the purchase, peaking at an 11% intraday gain during the regular session. The stock closed up 7.7% for the week.

Wheels Up Experience (NYSE:UP) CEO, Kenneth Dichter, 400,000 shares, or over $400,000 worth, from 12/14/22-12/15/22 at prices from $1.1253-$1.1474. Shares closed the week up 7.7%.

On Friday NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) CEO, Mauricio Gutierrez, bought 15,000 shares, or $480,450 worth, at $32.03, bringing his stake to 1,111,368 shares. In addition to that purchase, four directors on NRG's board also picked up a total of 30,000 shares at prices from $31.32 - $31.71. Shares closed Friday down 2.5% and were off 4.2% for the week.

Lions Gate (NYSE:LGFb) Director, Gordon Crawford, bought 100,000 shares on 12/14/22 at $6.177. Shares ticked down marginally for the week.

Senad Karaahmetovic contributed to this article.

***

If you’re interested in upgrading your search for new investing ideas, check out InvestingPro+