On January 29, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) released its Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings report. The report was a double miss — earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.73, below consensus estimates of $0.76, while revenues of $25.71 billion underperformed analyst expectations of $27.26 billion.
This time around, long-term bullishness did not prevail. Although Tesla stock rallied by 4% the day after the quarterly report, the surge didn’t last.
At press time on February 6, a single TSLA share was changing hands at $373.68— some 2.81% lower than at the time of the earnings release. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, the electric vehicle (EV) company’s stock is down 7.47%.
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In addition, Q4 marked the first ever year-over-year (YoY) decline in vehicle deliveries — although the Elon Musk-led venture still managed to deliver an average of 4,889 cars per day. Analysts opinions are divided — with some doubling down on their optimistic outlooks while others still see a significant downside in the cards.
With all the tumult surrounding the business, another interesting development has occurred recently. Finbold’s insider trading radar picked up a pretty significant insider sale from a Form 4 filing made public on February 5.
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This signal is triggered upon the reporting of the trade to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Chair of the board dumps $43 million worth of Tesla stock
On February 3, Robyn Denholm, chairwoman of Tesla’s board of directors, sold 112,390 Tesla shares. She executed the sales at prices ranging from $375.06 to $389.08. In total, Denholm’s transactions were worth $43,162,563.
To boot, the chairwoman executed options contracts to acquire the same amount of TSLA shares she sold — 112,390, for $24.73 apiece. All in all, the purchase set her back $2,779,404. Once all is said and done, Denholm profited approximately $40,383,159 on the trade. Following these transactions, she continues to hold 85,000 units of Tesla stock directly.
However, the sale cannot serve as a reliable bearish signal. The chairwoman’s sale was made pursuant to a 10b5-1 trading plan adopted on July 25, 2024 — so it was scheduled in advance.
Seeing as the plan encompasses the selling of 674,345 Tesla shares, Denholm is halfway done with her liquidations — as she executed trades of the same size on December 4 and November 15 of 2024.
This latest transaction is only the latest in a long line — insiders dumped roughly $44 million worth of Tesla stock in just the first 10 days of the year.
Readers should note that a closer look at the filings in question cites the orderly execution of employee options contracts scheduled to expire in 2025 as the reason behind the sales.
Featured image via Shutterstock
