Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

Post by tradersam » Sat, Nov 04, 2017, 3:46 AM UTC

alexasmyths wrote: post #25

adventured wrote: post #7

$94.6 billion net worth at present per Bloomberg. I know he is basically guaranteed to be running all of these sales off a sale schedule set far in advance for obvious reasons. However, I'd probably be doubling up those $1 billion sales until/unless this market gives out. Raising $6 or $10 billion - enough to fund Blue Origin for maybe a decade - by selling out of a $94 billion base, sure beats doing the same out of…

All of this is entirely dependent on whimsy. Amazon P/E is basically in the clouds. They and Telsa in some ways are basically impossible to value. So, people make difficult guesses. Though I agree that because AMZN could probably simply 'turn on profit' at any time, and so the classical P/E is not a great measure ... at the same time ... a small dip in something could ruin them. It only takes just a little bit of ret…

Post by Mikeb85 » Sat, Nov 04, 2017, 3:56 AM UTC

olympus wrote: post #30

prewett wrote: post #26

My initial question was how did he sell $1B and not affect the share price substantially. And sure enough, the share price did drop a bit. But average trading volume is about 2 billion shares, which is about $2B. It's pretty crazy that the market has so much liquidity that $2B of AMZN changes hands every day, and that it could soak up a $1B sale and barely change the price.

Minor correction: Google finance shows average volume at 3.7M shares, which at $1,100 per share is about $4B daily. Selling a billion dollars is still a significant chunk, so your point stands.

Post by goialoq » Sat, Nov 04, 2017, 4:08 AM UTC

refurb wrote: post #37

clarkevans wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The taxes (what, 20% capital gains?) seems an excellent deal for the ecosystem where he grew his company: a stable political system, strong asset protection enforced by strict laws, an educated workforce in a relatively unpolluted environment, etc.

Pretty sure offering those things to Bezos didn't cost the gov't $200M. And at any rate, most of the money will probably go for an airport that will never be used in some influential senator's state.

Post by skellera » Sat, Nov 04, 2017, 4:17 AM UTC

grandalf wrote: post #33

clarkevans wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The taxes (what, 20% capital gains?) seems an excellent deal for the ecosystem where he grew his company: a stable political system, strong asset protection enforced by strict laws, an educated workforce in a relatively unpolluted environment, etc.

I would much rather that Bezos be allowed to keep all of his capital gains but have appropriate antitrust enforcement step in and reduce Amazon's market power a bit. The recent upsurge of counterfeit products are evidence that Amazon is abusing its market power to the point of harming consumers.

Post by loeg » Sat, Nov 04, 2017, 4:21 AM UTC

TuringNYC wrote: post #44

loeg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is even possible to pay 0% federal rate on sale of stock, I did it on my 2016 return. Up to the top of the 15% bracket, yes, or $37,950 in total income for single earners in 2017 ($75,900 joint). It's easy to pay little in long-term cap. gains taxes if you are retired (or unemployed) with a cheap-to-moderate lifestyle. But not possible for ~$1 billion in gains, like Bezos' sale :-).

>> But not possible for ~$1 billion in gains Quite possible given enough trust lawyers and accountants. Mitt Romney managed to own a lot of his stock in his Roth IRA. The PayPal gang is famous for paying almost zero taxes though the same tricks. Yes, you dont get to spend it until retirement, but he isnt spending the billion, he is just reinvesting it.