By Introduction
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has recently made his first stock sale in over two years, selling $2 billion worth of shares in the retail and cloud company. The sale, which took place from February 7th to 8th, involved Bezos selling 12 million Amazon shares for an average price of $170.21 per share. This disclosure was made on Friday night.
Trading Plan Utilized
Bezos executed the stock sale using a Rule 10b5-1(c) trading plan previously disclosed by Amazon in its fourth-quarter 10-K form. The trading plan, filed by Bezos on November 8, 2023, covered up to 50 million shares. Such plans are commonly employed by insiders to buy or sell shares in a manner that eliminates bias or insider information. Insiders determine the parameters for the plan, including price and volume, and the transactions are automatically executed when the specified conditions are met.
Bezos’ Current Holdings
Despite the recent stock sale, Bezos still owns a substantial amount of Amazon shares, with a total of 976 million shares. The most recent sale comes after his last stock liquidation in November 2021, which occurred at an average price of approximately $172.70 after adjusting for a 20-for-1 stock split that occurred in June 2022.
Performance Comparison
In terms of performance, Amazon stock has seen a 15% increase this year, outperforming the S&P 500’s 5.4% rise.
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