Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares gained nearly 6% to about $418 in early Monday trading after a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that company CEO Elon Musk bought 2.57 million Tesla shares on Friday, at prices between $371.38 to $396.54 per share, valued at about $1 billion.
Following the transaction, Musk now owns 509,362,808 Tesla shares.
The stock purchase was Musk’s first since February 2020, when he bought about Tesla 200,000 shares worth around $10 million, according to data provided by Verity.
Earlier this month, Tesla’s board of directors proposed a historic compensation plan for Musk that could be worth about $1 trillion if he meets performance targets over the next decade.
The package, which shareholders will vote on in November, includes 12 tranches of stock awards Musk will receive only if Tesla hits extraordinary milestones.
These include reaching a market capitalization of $8.5 trillion, roughly eight times its current valuation, as well as massive gains in profitability, vehicle production, and new business lines in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Tesla shares have risen about 10% year to date, underperforming the nearly 13% gain from the S&P 500 index, as the company has been hurt by Musk’s political activities, along with the end of certain incentives for electric vehicles (EVs) by the Trump administration.