Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Tesla Stock Rises Despite Musk Selling $3.58B of Its Shares
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 1 year ago on
December 15, 2022

Share

Shares of Tesla rose slightly in midday trading Thursday despite news that CEO Elon Musk sold another $3.58 billion worth of the electric vehicle maker’s stock this week.

The stock traded at $157.06 at midday, near its two-year lows, but it was faring better than the broader markets.

Musk, the new owner of Twitter, sold the shares from Monday through Wednesday, according to a filing posted Wednesday night by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It wasn’t clear where the proceeds were being spent.

Musk has sold nearly $23 billion worth of Tesla stock since April, with much of the money likely going to help fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. Early last month he sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to regulatory filings.

The sale comes as shares of the electric vehicle and solar panel maker have collapsed, losing over half their value since Musk first disclosed in April that he was buying up Twitter stock.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a client note that there’s concerns as Musk seems to be changing the narrative of the Tesla story from the fundamental electric vehicle transformation story to becoming a source of funds to finance his Twitter acquisition.

“The Twitter nightmare continues as Musk uses Tesla as his own ATM machine to keep funding the red ink at Twitter which gets worse by the day as more advertisers flee the platform with controversy increasingly driven by Musk,” Ives wrote.

The falling shares of Tesla have bumped Musk from his status as the world’s wealthiest person, with his net worth falling to $174 billion, according to Forbes. He was passed last week by French fashion and cosmetics magnate Bernard Arnault. Most of Musk’s wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla Inc.

The takeover of Twitter has not been smooth, and some big companies have halted advertising on the social media platform. Musk has said that Twitter had “a massive drop in revenue” due to the advertiser losses.

Investors have been punishing Tesla stock of late as Musk has spent much of his time running Twitter, raising fears that he’s distracted from the car company.

Just this week Twitter dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of around 100 independent civil, human rights and other organizations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.

A message was left with Tesla Wednesday night seeking comment on the stock sale.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Boeing’s Financial Woes Continue, While Families of Crash Victims Urge US to Prosecute

DON'T MISS

Police Tangle With Students in Texas and California as Wave of Campus Protest Against Gaza War Grows

DON'T MISS

Meet the Valley Republican Predicting a November Win Over Esmeralda Soria

DON'T MISS

Wired Wednesday: Construction Workers on 2018 Fresno Unified Project Still Not Paid

DON'T MISS

Slumping California Risks Losing World’s ‘5th Largest Economy’ Title

DON'T MISS

Ukraine Uses Long-Range Missiles Secretly Provided by US to Hit Russian-Held Areas, Officials Say

DON'T MISS

Upward Bound: Edison High’s Garcia Headed to Johns Hopkins

DON'T MISS

Boxing Star Ryan Garcia Wants to Meet Netanyahu, Pledges Aid for Gaza Children

DON'T MISS

Fong Won’t Debate Boudreaux, but We Get Hot Topic Answers Anyway

DON'T MISS

Legislation Pandering to Tribal Casinos Is a Bad Bet for Fresno Cardroom Employees

UP NEXT

Ukraine Uses Long-Range Missiles Secretly Provided by US to Hit Russian-Held Areas, Officials Say

UP NEXT

General Motors Reports Strong First-Quarter Profits as Prices Help Offset Small US Sales Dip

UP NEXT

Did Fresno Unified’s Biggest Contractor Not Pay Its Workers? Company Still Gets Millions After Civil Penalty

UP NEXT

Express Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection, Announces Store Closures

UP NEXT

Man Sets Himself on Fire Outside Trump Hush Money Trial Court

UP NEXT

Who Owns Businesses in California? A Lawmaker Wants the Public to Know

UP NEXT

Did City Council Finally Give New NW Fresno Costco a Green Light?

UP NEXT

Biden Pledges to Block Japanese Takeover of US Steel and Promises Tariffs on Chinese Steel

UP NEXT

Southern California City Council Gives Key Approval for Disneyland Expansion Plan

UP NEXT

Tesla Wants Shareholders to Reinstate CEO Elon Musk’s $56 Billion Pay Package

Wired Wednesday: Construction Workers on 2018 Fresno Unified Project Still Not Paid

12 hours ago

Slumping California Risks Losing World’s ‘5th Largest Economy’ Title

12 hours ago

Ukraine Uses Long-Range Missiles Secretly Provided by US to Hit Russian-Held Areas, Officials Say

14 hours ago

Upward Bound: Edison High’s Garcia Headed to Johns Hopkins

Local Education /

15 hours ago

Boxing Star Ryan Garcia Wants to Meet Netanyahu, Pledges Aid for Gaza Children

15 hours ago

Fong Won’t Debate Boudreaux, but We Get Hot Topic Answers Anyway

16 hours ago

Legislation Pandering to Tribal Casinos Is a Bad Bet for Fresno Cardroom Employees

16 hours ago

About 1 in 4 US Adults Over 50 Say They Expect to Never Retire, an AARP Study Finds

17 hours ago

Biden Signs a $95 Billion War Aid Measure With Assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

17 hours ago

Ancestry Website to Catalogue Names of Japanese Americans Incarcerated During World War II

18 hours ago

Boeing’s Financial Woes Continue, While Families of Crash Victims Urge US to Prosecute

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft ma...

11 hours ago

11 hours ago

Boeing’s Financial Woes Continue, While Families of Crash Victims Urge US to Prosecute

11 hours ago

Police Tangle With Students in Texas and California as Wave of Campus Protest Against Gaza War Grows

CA District 27 Assembly candidate Joanna Garcia Rose
11 hours ago

Meet the Valley Republican Predicting a November Win Over Esmeralda Soria

12 hours ago

Wired Wednesday: Construction Workers on 2018 Fresno Unified Project Still Not Paid

12 hours ago

Slumping California Risks Losing World’s ‘5th Largest Economy’ Title

14 hours ago

Ukraine Uses Long-Range Missiles Secretly Provided by US to Hit Russian-Held Areas, Officials Say

Local Education /
15 hours ago

Upward Bound: Edison High’s Garcia Headed to Johns Hopkins

15 hours ago

Boxing Star Ryan Garcia Wants to Meet Netanyahu, Pledges Aid for Gaza Children

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend