Tesla Inc TSLA board member Joe Gebbia made waves with a $1 million insider stock purchase—the company’s first insider buy in years—just ahead of a planned stock sale by Chairwoman Robyn Denholm.
What Happened: Denholm has filed a new Form 144 that could carry out her pattern of exercising Tesla options and selling off common shares, making millions of dollars in the process.
The form shows Denholm is planning to sell 112,390 Tesla shares for proceeds of around $32 million. The filing is part of a Rule 10b5-1, which means Denholm may have predetermined the transaction timing and share amounts and are not based on any insider information.
According to the filing, the latest transaction comes after Denholm exercised Tesla options acquired on June 18, 2018.
Denholm also sold the same number of shares (112,390) in February and March, with sales totaling $43.2 million and $33.7 million, respectively.
Benzinga contacted Tesla for clarification on the latest transaction and Denholm’s remaining stake in the company but did not hear back.
The filing indicates that Denholm owns 85,000 Tesla shares and 300,440 options after the latest transaction.
As highlighted by Tesla influencer “Tesla Larry” on social media, Denholm has exercised options previously, keeping a portion of the shares and selling others. Tesla Larry said the reports of Denholm selling shares are misleading as she is not liquidating her entire Tesla position and often increases her Tesla stake with the exercising of options.
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Why It’s Important: Denholm has been one of the most active sellers when it comes to Tesla insiders, with sales earlier this year in February and March. The Tesla Chairwoman also sold shares in March, May, July, November and December of 2024 according to Benzinga’s Insider Trades page.
Denholm has received over $600 million in stock compensation since she joined the Tesla Board of Directors in 2014 and shas sold over $500 million in Tesla stock since that time, according to Electrek.
Denholm became the Tesla Chairwoman in 2018 replacing Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was required to step down from the role as part of an SEC settlement.
Some Tesla investors have been less than pleased with Denholm’s hands-off role as Chairwoman and her constant selling of shares.
The latest filing by Denholm may completely overshadow the insider purchase made by Gebbia. While Gebbia’s transaction was small in size at $1.03 million, it marked the first insider purchase in years and may signal increased confidence in Tesla ahead of robotaxis, FSD, new vehicle models and other coming catalysts.
Price Action: Tesla stock was down 5.1% to $277.14 on Wednesday, compared to a 52-week trading range of $167.41 to $488.54. Year-to-date in 2025, Tesla stock is down 26.8%, while shares have increased over 50% in the last year.
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