Jeff Bezos Sells About $3 Bln Of Amazon Stock

(RTTNews) - Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), has sold $3.1 billion worth stock in the online retail company, according to latest filings.

According to the filings with Securities and Exchange Commission, Bezos sold nearly 1 million shares worth $3.1 billion. After taxes, the world's richest man will take home about $2.4 billion. Forbes estimates Bezos current net worth to be at least $188 billion.

The latest share sale leaves him with 54.5 million shares worth roughly $174.64 billion at the current market price. Previously, in February, Bezos had sold a similar large amount of Amazon stock worth $1.7 billion.

The stock sale comes at a time when the company's shares have surged more than 73% this year.

In 2017, Bezos had revealed that he would be selling $1 billion worth of shares every year to fund Blue Origin, his space exploration company.

Meanwhile, last week, Amazon reported a second-quarter profit that doubled from a year ago, driven by revenues growth. Both earnings and revenues for the quarter trumped estimates. Amazon's sales for the quarter increased 40% to $88.91 billion from $63.40 billion last year, with North America up 43 percent and international sales up 38 percent.