Gary Zhou 
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn sold 3,750 shares of company stock, according to a filing with the SEC.
The Form 4 from the agency shows Kirkhorn offloaded 3,750 shares at a price of $250.50, amounting to $939,375. Kirkhorn still owns 189,027 shares, valued at over $47 million.
Kirkhorn has worked at Tesla for over nine years, obtaining the CFO title in March 2019. Kirkhorn has also assumed the roles of Senior Director and VP of Finance for Tesla. He was a Senior Business Analyst for McKinsey and Company before working at Tesla.
The reason for the sale is unknown, but it is not uncommon for company executives to sell holdings. CEO Elon Musk has sold shares over the past year to fund his acquisition of Twitter, and Chief Accounting Officer Vaibhav Taneja is just one of many executives who have sold Tesla holdings within the past couple of years.
Kirkhorn’s sale should not alarm anyone, especially as the sale was less than two percent of the CFO’s total Tesla holdings.
TESLA’S MARKET PERFORMANCE
At the time of writing, Tesla is down around 2 percent, trading at $236.05 at 10:35 a.m. on the East Coast. The electric automaker has had a relatively rough week on the stock market, falling nearly ten percent on Monday alone and down over 11.2 percent in the past five trading days.
Tesla shares are likely being affected by Musk’s renewed interest in acquiring the social media platform Twitter. Musk and the platform were set to head to trial later this month, but it seems the Tesla CEO has decided that acquiring Twitter will help launch future ventures, including X, a project Musk has talked about for several years.
Tesla shareholders have expressed discontent with Musk’s decision to leverage Tesla stock to fund the purchase. However, this may have been a better outcome for Musk and Tesla as a company, according to some analysts.
“Writing was on the wall he could not win in Delaware and this saves both sides a long and ugly court battle ahead,” Wedbush’s Dan Ives said earlier this week. “Musk will now own the Twitter platform as an end to this saga and soap opera that began in April.”
However, the deal has reportedly become more complicated, as some previously-committed banks have gotten cold feet and may reposition themselves within the deal.
