U.S. CEOs and Corporate Insiders Sell Off Record $69 Billion in Stock in 2021
Posted on 12/01/2021
As of November 29, 2021, U.S. CEOs of listed companies and corporate insiders sold a record of US$ 69 billion in stock in 2021, according to data from InsiderScore/Verity. InsiderScore is a trading, institutional ownership, and stock buyback research and analytics firm. Their analysis shows the top four major sellers were Elon Musk of Tesla Inc., Jeff Bezos (Amazon), the Walton family (Walmart), and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. The four sellers account for 37% of 2021’s total. The analytics firm shows that sales by insiders are up 30% from 2020 and up 79% versus a 10-year average.
Looming tax hikes, potential tapering, and “high” share prices, have enticed America’s CEOs and insiders to sell stocks and take profits. Some of the equity selling is through scheduled selling programs.