Update, Feb. 7: Bezos sold another 283,632 shares Friday, worth more than $579 million, according to new filings. This brings the total to nearly $4 billion over the past week.
Original story: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1.6 billion in stock in transactions starting on Wednesday, according to regulatory filings made public Thursday. This follows another stock sale of $1.8 billion earlier this week.
Bezos sold more than 810,000 shares of Amazon stock at prices ranging from $2,016 per share to more than $2,070 per share, the filings show.
Amazon stock soared after its blockbuster quarterly earnings report last week and sent the company’s valuation above the $1 trillion market capitalization mark. The stock price increased this week, trading at $2,050 when the market closed Thursday.
Significant stock sales by top corporate executives are often made based on a schedule set out in advance.
Bezos said in 2017 that he was selling $1 billion a year to fund his Blue Origin space venture, but he has been increasing the size and frequency of the stock sales. He sold $2.8 billion worth of Amazon stock this past August.
Amazon and Blue Origin declined to comment.
Bezos on Thursday shared a peculiar Instagram post about a “business question” related to a scenario at a cocktail party. The post included a Seinfeld “Serenity Now” button. Some speculated that it was a dig at a senior Trump official.
