Jeff Bezos aims to sell another $5 billion of Amazon stock, after earlier selling spree

By Emily Bary

The Amazon founder and executive chair has filed to sell up to 25 million shares, after he dumped 50 million in February

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos is looking to sell more stock, according to a recent filing.

He filed late Tuesday to sell up to 25 million Amazon shares (AMZN) as part of a trading plan. Amazon's last quarterly filing indicated that Bezos had adopted a new 10b5-1 plan allowing him to sell that much stock through the end of December 2025.

The value of 25 million Amazon shares is about $5 billion, based on recent levels. Bezos' latest filing showed that sales were estimated to begin Tuesday, though Bezos has yet to file anything showing that he did indeed start selling then or how much he sold.

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This would mark Bezos' second big selling spree of the year through a trading plan. He unloaded 50 million shares across a period in mid-February.

Amazon declined to comment when asked if the company or Bezos had comment on the most recent filing.

At the time of Bezos' selling activity earlier this year, VerityData research vice president Ben Silverman told MarketWatch that Bezos traditionally concentrates selling over several sessions rather than spreading sales out over much longer spans. He also noted then that Bezos' past selling hadn't been predictive of Amazon's future stock performance.

The filing from Bezos comes as Amazon shares closed at a crisp record high of $200 on Tuesday. They're down about 1% in Wednesday action to a recent $197.76.

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The filing also showed that Bezos was intending to sell "founder stock" that he acquired in 1994. When he sold in February, those shares were also listed as "founder stock."

Bezos, who is now Amazon's executive chair, is still a huge holder of Amazon shares. He owned more than 936 million shares as of a late May filing that indicated the gifting of more than 1 million shares to nonprofits.

-Emily Bary

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07-03-24 2203ET

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