According to a regulatory document released on Friday (February 2), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock within 12 months.
Amazon closed up 7.87% on Friday at $171.81 on the US stock market, with a net increase of $129.5 billion in market value due to positive financial news.
According to the closing price of the day, Amazon's market value reached $1.78 trillion, surpassing Alphabet for the first time since 2022, with a market value of $1.77 trillion.
On Thursday of the previous day, the company announced record breaking fourth quarter results, with the new features of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AIGC) in its cloud and e-commerce businesses stimulating strong sales growth during the critical holiday season.
Cash out up to 50 million shares
Bezos resigned as CEO of Amazon in 2021, but he still serves as Chairman of Amazon's Board of Directors.
According to regulations from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bezos' plan to sell stocks needs to be disclosed in Amazon's annual report released on Friday.
The annual report states that Bezos has a trading plan: under certain conditions, it will sell up to 50 million Amazon shares within the 12 months ending on January 31, 2025.
Based on the current stock price, the total value of the stocks that Bezos plans to reduce will be close to $8.6 billion.
Now seems to be a good time for Bezos to sell stocks. In 2022, due to the sharp decline in e-commerce demand caused by the pandemic and macroeconomic uncertainty, Amazon's stock price plummeted to a low of $84 per share in December 2022.
Subsequently, Amazon's current CEO Andy Jesse began taking proactive cost reduction measures, including multiple rounds of large-scale layoffs, resulting in tens of thousands of employees losing their jobs. Some layoff measures have been ongoing until this year.
With the gradual implementation of cost reduction measures, Amazon's stock price has also experienced a significant increase. Since its low point in December 2022, the stock price has risen by about 90%.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that Bezos has recently moved from Washington to Florida, which means he may be able to waive a state capital gains tax when selling stocks, as Florida currently does not have a capital gains tax.