Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) has been in a state of free fall for the last 30 days.
High hopes surrounded the electric vehicle (EV) maker in view of chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk’s close relationship with President Trump as we entered 2025, given that the price of TSLA shares increased from $251 to $403 from the time of Trump’s election victory to December 31 — which equated to a 60% rally.
However, Musk has become an increasingly controversial and polarizing figure — to boot, weak sales in China and a generally disappointing quarterly report on January 29 have combined to put significant downward pressure on the price of TSLA shares.
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By press time, TSLA stock was changing hands at a price of $275.31 marking a 29.81% decline on a monthly basis that has brought year-to-date (YTD) losses up to 31.83%.
In the midst of this bearish turn, on March 5, Finbold’s insider trading radar picked up two interesting SEC Form 4 filings. The documents revealed that two insiders executed sales of Tesla stock. Let’s take a closer look at the transactions.
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Chairwoman and CFO dump $35.43 million worth of Tesla stock on the same day
The larger trade was made by Robyn Denholm, the chairwoman of the carmaker’s board of directors. Her sale took place on March 3 and was executed through 11 transactions, which took place at prices ranging from $292.75 to $303.58 per TSLA share.
Denholm sold a total of 112,390 units of Tesla stock, worth approximately $33.67 million. The chairwoman also exercised stock options to acquire 112,390 shares at a price of $24.73 apiece, which set her back roughly $2.77 million. All in all, Denholm, who prearranged and executed the trade under a 10b5-1 plan, profited roughly $30.9 million.
Vaibhav Taneja, the EV company’s chief financial officer (CFO), made the second sale. On March 3, he executed 14 transactions, at prices ranging from $279.53 to $301.72. In total, the executive offloaded 6,000 units of Tesla stock worth roughly $1.76 million.
Just like his colleague, Taneja exercised stock options to acquire just as many TSLA shares as he sold — 6,000. Therefore, at a price of $18.22 per unit, the acquisition cost him $109,320, bringing his profit closer to $1.66 million.
Although prearranged, it’s impossible to ignore the magnitude of the sales, particularly when coupled with Kimbal Musk’s $27.6 million trade in February. Most Wall Street analysts have maintained a bullish outlook on Tesla stock, even despite recent issues. However, readers should note that major firms, namely Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, have recently made significant cuts to their price targets.
Featured image via Shutterstock
