Electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sold shares worth a staggering $3.58 billion between December 12 and 14. As per a regulatory filing dated December 14, Musk sold roughly 22 million TSLA shares in multiple transactions at average sale prices ranging between $157.550 and $176.702.
Post the latest sale, Musk now directly owns 423,622,432 shares of the world’s largest EV maker by value. The Form 4 filing was probably filed after hours yesterday, and shareholders had not yet reacted to the news when the U.S. markets opened on December 15.
Remarkably, this is the billionaire’s second sale following his Twitter purchase. Musk is daunted by the continuous pressure to turn around Twitter, with issues of “free speech” cropping up repeatedly. The lingering interest expense from the unsecured debt worth $13 billion taken on to buy Twitter may be the reason for the abrupt year-end share sale. Twitter’s annual interest expense amounts to $1.2 billion.
To add to Tesla’s woes, yesterday Goldman Sachs cut the quarterly EV delivery expectations, which pushed TSLA stock to a new 52-week low of $155.31. Tesla stock has been flirting with new lows ever since Musk announced the Twitter purchase in April 2022. The battered share price has also stripped Musk of his title as the world’s wealthiest man.
On December 13, SpaceX said it would sell insider shares for $77 a piece, valuing the company at $140 billion. It was then thought that the amount would be used to fund Twitter’s interest expenses. But with the latest TSLA stock sale, Musk’s intent remains ambiguous.
Is it Still Smart to Invest in Tesla?
It is difficult to fathom Musk’s intent with the Twitter overhang continuously pressurizing TSLA stock. It may not be the best time to invest in the stock as analysts also remain concerned about the EV maker’s future.
On TipRanks, Tesla stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 19 Buys, eight Holds, and two Sell ratings. The average Tesla price forecast of $302.81 implies 93.1% upside potential to current levels. Meanwhile, TSLA stock has lost 60.8% year to date.
