'It's wild': Tesla insiders have sold more than 50% of their shares in the last year
The value of the stakes of Tesla's top executives and board members has fallen by $2 billion over the past year, Electrek has calculated
Key figures in the management of Tesla, with the exception of Elon Musk, have sold more than half of their shares in the company over the past year, according to Electrek, a portal dedicated to electric cars. The sale took place against the backdrop of Musk's statements that Tesla will become the most expensive company in the world, and the price of its shares will grow 10 times due to autonomous driving technologies and robots, the publication notes.
Details
The shares of top managers and members of Tesla's board of directors in the company's shares and options to buy them have decreased by more than 50% over the past year, Electrek writes. The publication compared information on ownership stakes that Tesla made public ahead of its annual shareholders meeting in the summer of 2024 with data from subsequent Tesla reports.
Among the top executives who have been actively selling Tesla stock over the past year are the company's CFO Vaibhav Taneja and Senior Vice President of Automotive Tom Zhu. The data compiled by Electrek shows that Taneja's stake in the stock and options was down 22% by July 8, 2025, while Tom Zhu's stake was down nearly six times by June 12. Board member Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk's brother, sold his entire Tesla options stake by May 27 and reduced his shareholding.
Some of those changes relate to the partial revocation in 2025 of stock options previously granted to board members as part of a settlement of a lawsuit by Tesla minority shareholders over excessive executive compensation, the publication notes. "However, this does not explain the reduction of their stakes by more than 6 million shares and options totaling about $2 billion at the current price. (...) Reducing ownership by more than 50% in one year is wild," the article says.
Context
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's stake in shares and options for April-December 2024 declined marginally to 714.8 million securities from 715 million, the automaker disclosed.
In August 2025, Tesla approved Musk's new compensation of 96 million shares, equivalent to about $30 billion, which the Tesla CEO will receive if he stays in the position for another two years.
What about the stock
After Tesla's weak second-quarter report, GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson advised to sell its shares, noting that Musk's speech lacked "the usual bravado". Baird experts recommended holding the company's securities (Hold), expressing doubts about Tesla's ability to "meet deadlines, achieve cost targets and scale its robotaxi project." Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a known Musk fan, reiterated a Buy recommendation and said Tesla's potential for autonomous transportation is valued at a trillion dollars.
According to FactSet, 22 analysts (Buy and Overweight ratings) consider Tesla shares a good buy, 19 experts recommend to hold the company's securities (Hold), 10 experts recommend to sell (Sell and Underweight). Tesla's consensus rating, calculated by the service, has remained neutral (Hold) for the last three months. The average target price of $313.91 per share implies a 6.3% decline in quotations over the next year.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
