Tesla Shares Top $1,000

Tesla (TSLA) is the brainchild of entrepreneur Elon Musk. The company made waves by challenging the auto industry and producing its own all-electric car.

Tesla shares managed to top the $1,000 level yesterday, gaining as much as 7.5% at the close after founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he had sold “enough stock” to reach his plan to sell 10% of his shares in the world's most valuable car company, according to an interview released on Tuesday. Musk said he sold the shares because he needed to exercise stock options that are expiring next year “no matter what.” His announcement came after weeks of the billionaire selling shares consistently, after he agreed to sell 10% of his stake in the electric vehicle manufacturer that he founded.

According to SEC filings Musk has sold roughly 13.5 million shares since posting a survey on Twitter asking his followers if he should sell 10% of his shares in Tesla. The answer was “yes” and since then Musk has been making multiple weekly sales of shares, as well as exercising millions of options shares. It‘s been reported that Musk would be facing a tax bill of around $15 billion, and that could be at least part of the reason he has taken to selling Tesla shares. Musk has also said he doesn’t take a Tesla salary, and therefore must sell stock in order to pay taxes.

Interestingly, while Musk has sold 13.5 million shares, he‘s added roughly 16.4 million shares over the same time frame through exercising options, thus increasing his stake in Tesla. Tesla shares closed the session at $1,008.87, finally topping the $1,000 level that’s been resistive lately. Shares are also up more than 42% since the start of the year. Over the past three years Tesla has gained over 1,100%. Musk is the world‘s richest individual, with a net worth of nearly $250 billion, but in the interview he stressed that most of his wealth is tied up in stock. “It’s not like Ive got some sort of massive cash balance,” he said. Shares are down from a November high of $1243.49 a share. Elon Musk's net worth has surpassed $300 billion, making him the first person on the planet to reach that milestone. It also means the Tesla chief executive is worth tens of billions more than the second-richest person on earth, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.