For the first time in more than two years, founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos has sold $2 billion worth of the retail and cloud company’s stock.
Late on Friday night, the sale was made public.
Between February 7 and 8, Bezos sold 12 million Amazon shares for $2.04 billion, or an average price of $170.21 per share. The transactions, which occurred on Wednesday and Thursday, brought in little more than $2 billion, per a report from Bloomberg.
Since records date back to 2002, the founder of Amazon has sold approximately $30 billion worth of shares, with over $20 billion of those sales occurring in 2020 and 2021 alone. His main activity has been donating stock, such as the approximately $230 million worth of shares he gave to charitable groups in November.
In an attempt to profit from a stock spike that has moved him closer to becoming the richest person in the world, Bezos intends to sell up to 50 million Amazon shares over the course of the next 12 months, according to a disclosure made by Amazon on February 2. As of Friday, his net worth has increased by $22.6 billion to $199.5 billion, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Amazon stated in its 10-K form for the fourth quarter that Bezos sold the stock using a Rule 10b5-1(c) trading strategy, per a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The business announced on November 8, 2023, that Bezos had applied for the plan, which covered up to 50 million shares.
Inside news
Insiders usually use these trading plans to purchase or sell shares without any indication of bias from the company’s internal operations or upcoming agreements. Insiders determine the parameters, including volume and price, and when the requirements are satisfied, the transactions are carried out automatically.
Bezos still holds 976 million Amazon shares following the most recent sales. The last time he sold stock was in November 2021, when it was adjusted for an effective 20-for-1 stock split that took place in June 2022. Compared to the S&P 500’s 5.4% gain so far this year, Amazon’s stock has increased by 15%.
