Billionaire Elon Musk is putting his money where his mouth is.

He purchased about $1 billion worth of Tesla stock, his first open market purchase of the electric vehicle-maker's shares since February 2020, regulatory filings show.

Musk bought 2.57 million shares on Sept. 12, paying between $372.37 and $396.54 per share, according to a regulatory filing on Sept. 15. The purchase is Musk's largest insider stock purchase ever by value and widely seen as a vote of confidence in the company by its outspoken chief executive.

The purchase comes at a critical time for the EV giant as it struggles with slowing car sales, shrinking market share and a backlash against Musk for his role in slashing government jobs during his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk gave up his government job to refocus on Tesla and has pushed for greater control over the company. The company's board proposed just more than a week ago a $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk based on lofty financial and operational targets to address his demands. If approved, it would be the largest corporate pay package in history.

Musk's share purchase is "the clearest signal yet that (Musk is) slamming the accelerator on being all in again ... the Tesla-Musk narrative looks firmly back on track after a shaky start to the year," said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Around 1 p.m. ET, Tesla shares were up 3.07% at $416.22, after earlier reaching the highest level since mid-January.

Contributing: Reuters

Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk puts his money where his mouth is, buys $1 billion of Tesla shares

Reporting by Medora Lee, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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