Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold 22 million shares of his company for $3.58 billion.
According to Arabiya.net, this is the fourth time in 2022 that Elon Musk sells shares in the electric car maker.
And disclosures announced late yesterday evening, Wednesday, in the United States, showed that the sales took place during the period from December 12 to December 14, 2022.
The continuous decline in Tesla shares led to the electric car maker's valuation falling below the half-trillion dollar level for the first time since November 2020.
The stock closed down 2.6% at $156.80 in New York on Wednesday, bringing the company's market value down to $495 billion, down 55% since the beginning of the year.
Tesla is the sixth-largest member of the S&P 500 as of Wednesday's close, and that compares with its previous ranking as the third-largest company in the index this year, an index the company joined two years ago, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla shares came under a lot of pressure due to concern about a possible recession and the Federal Reserve's move to raise interest rates, which prompted investors to dump risky stocks with high valuations, which led to a massive sell-off in technology stocks and growth stocks in particular.
Moreover, the company's own problems, including supply shortages, rising raw material costs and production disruptions, as well as Elon Musk's preoccupation with restructuring his recently acquired Twitter platform, have hit the stock hard.
Meanwhile, Musk lost his title as the richest person in the world, after losing more than $100 billion of his fortune this year.
And the matter does not stop there, as the outlook for the coming year also looks bleak.
Two Wall Street analysts lowered their forecasts for the stock, recommending caution about Tesla and the electric car sector in general, as Goldman Sachs cut its forecast to reflect weaker supply and demand levels, while Morgan Stanley warned that weaker demand for electric cars.
Morgan Stanley also lowered its forecast for U.S. adoption.
While Tesla shares have been largely declining all year, the decline has intensified in the past two months, with the stock down 41% since the end of September.
The broader S&P 500 rose 11% in the same period, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 7%.
