Bezos Unloads 15 Million Amazon Shares in Planned Sale
Jeff Bezos' planned sale of Amazon stock has sparked interest among investors. According to a Form 144 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bezos intends to sell 15 million shares of Amazon common stock through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.
The proposed transaction was valued at approximately $4.07 billion based on the market value listed in the filing. This represents a small portion of Amazon's more than 10.78 billion shares outstanding.
Bezos acquired the shares as founder stock on July 5, 1994, when Amazon first issued its common stock. The filing noted that Bezos had no reportable sales of Amazon securities during the previous three months.
However, the filing also mentioned that Bezos contributed 220,200 shares to nonprofit organizations on May 4, which may have subsequently been sold. CNBC host Jim Cramer reacted to the filing in a post on X, writing, 'Cant begrudge Bezos for selling $4 billion shares…but what a buzzkill.'
Amazon recently reported second-quarter revenue of $200.61 billion, surpassing the consensus estimate of $196.46 billion. The company also posted earnings of $5.75 per share, well above analysts' expectations of $1.82 per share.