Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella sells more than $285 million worth of Microsoft shares
New York (CNN Business)It looks like Tesla's Elon Musk isn't alone in having a famous CEO to get out of shares of the company they manage. Microsoft Chairman, as well as CEO Satya Nadella, has shed more than half shares in Microsoft over the last week.
Nadella was able to sell nearly 840,000 shares in Microsoft in the days before Thanksgiving, earning approximately $285 million in profit according to a report filed in the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nadella still holds more than 830,000 Microsoft shares Microsoft (MSFT) and they are worth approximately $280 million.
It's only natural that Nadella might take some money from the market. In the end, Microsoft stock has been an outstanding performer over the last year, climbing over 50 percent. Home Depot (HD) is the only Dow stock to have performed better than the other stocks.
Microsoft has seen a rise in earnings and sales thanks to the cloud-led position it has been establishing in the years since Nadella was appointed CEO in the year 2014. Microsoft is now worth greater than $2.5 trillion. The only Microsoft competitor Apple (AAPL) owns more market value.
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And Nadella is being paid handsomely for his success at Microsoft.
According to Microsoft's latest annual proxy statement for shareholders that was filed in the SEC, Nadella earned a salary of $2.5 million for the year and is a recipient of an annual compensation package that includes stock awards as well as cash incentives of close to $50 million. Nadella has earned greater than 40 million in the last two fiscal years and.
Under the leadership of Nadella, Microsoft has bulked up its Azure cloud service. Microsoft is also making profits from its base Office 365 suite of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other software for business, and also from the LinkedIn corporate social networking division and its Xbox gaming department.
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A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed in an announcement for CNN Business that Nadella sold the shares "for personal plans for financial security and diversification."
"He is dedicated to the ongoing development of the company and his holdings are significantly higher than the requirements for holdings set in Microsoft's Board of Directors. Microsoft Board of Directors," the spokesperson said.
The stock sale is also shortly before Microsoft's home state of Washington will be implementing a 7% long-term tax on capital gains.