Bezos' $671 Million Sale Of Amazon Stock Isn't Necessarily A Bearish Move

According to a Form 4 filed with the SEC on Thursday, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos sold, between Tuesday and Thursday, about 1 percent of his stake in the company. After the disposal of more than 1 million shares, valued at $671 million before taxes, Bezos disclosed ownership of 81.91 million shares of Common Stock, which accounted for roughly 17 percent of the total shares outstanding.

The move has been described as Bezos’ largest stock sale ever, surpassing last year’s sale of $534 million in stock. While this statement is accurate in terms of the transaction value, it's not in terms of the number of shares sold. In May 2010, the CEO got rid of more than 2 million shares in 11 days; In August 2009, he made a similar move over three days.

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Not A Bearish Move?

Bezos’ stock sale was completed under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which means the transaction was pre-planned. However, the date of the initiation of said trading plan was not disclosed.

What investors do know is that a sale took place.

What investors can induce is that this may indicate Bezos had a price trigger set on the $662 to $678 range, and this sale doesn't necessarily imply  the company’s CEO is becoming less optimistic on its future.

General Counsel David Zapolsky also sold via a similar method, albeit much smaller share size. The Senior Vice President marketed 1,110 shares of the company, netting a total of $751,869.60.

Shares of Amazon have gained almost 12 percent since the company reported its first quarter results.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.