Although 2026 is not yet a fortnight old at press time, certain Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) insiders have already executed massive TSLA stock insider sales.
Indeed, Director James Murdoch – son of the former Australian-American media mogul, Rupert Murdoch – sold 60,000 Tesla shares on January 2 at an average price of $445.4 and for a total of $26.7 million.
Had the trade – reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 6 – been made at press time on January 12, it would have been worth a total of $26.5 million, as Tesla stock is changing hands at $441.97 in the Monday pre-market.
Despite $26 million being a relatively modest figure compared to some of the other TSLA insider trades, it is worth pointing out that the total sold in January 2025 amounted to $44 million, meaning it is likely senior personnel at the electric vehicle (EV) maker will have sold far more by the end of the month than one year prior.
Should Tesla stock investors worry about massive early 2026 insider sale
Elsewhere, it is worth pointing out that insider trades, no matter their size, are not a reliable gauge of a company’s health. Indeed, many officers and directors have regularly executed scheduled sales of their equity, meaning that the majority of such maneuvers aren’t conscious moment-to-moment decisions.
Nonetheless, keeping a close eye on Tesla insiders could be a savvy move in 2026. While the EV giant performed relatively well for the whole-year 2025 despite the massive springtime plunge, recent developments give cause for concern.
After years of dominating, Tesla’s deliveries in the fourth quarter (Q4) came below the already-modest expectations, showcasing the company’s relative weakness in the entire 12-month period.
Still, the decline in sales does not necessarily demonstrate that something is going wrong with Elon Musk’s car company, as most of it can be linked to external factors such as broad consumer pressures and the end of EV credits that came last September.
The factors that could be of greater concern for TSLA stock investors are Musk’s alleged gutting of the EV maker’s high-tech division for the benefit of his new artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI.
The move can be seen as alarming as a significant factor in Tesla shares’ recovery in the second half of 2025 has been the many self-driving and robotics promises Elon Musk has made – an endeavor that surely requires a team of AI-focused engineers.
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