Musk Says He Won't Sell More Tesla Shares, For Real This Time

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Elon Musk said he will not sell any more shares of Tesla (TSLA) stock for at least 18 months, after having sold roughly $40 billion dollars in Tesla stock in the past year as its share price fell to a two-year low.

Key Takeaways

  • Elon Musk said this week that he would not sell any more shares of Tesla for at least 18 to 24 months.
  • Musk said he wouldn’t sell more shares in April 2022, after which he continued selling.
  • The billionaire CEO has disposed of nearly $40 billion in stock in the last year, largely to fund his purchase of Twitter in October.
  • Tesla shares have plunged by about two-thirds in the last 12 months amid Musk’s sell-off, concerns about his leadership of Twitter, inflation, interest rates, and other factors.
  • Tesla has also told workers about a hiring freeze and potential layoffs to come.

There is reason for investors to be skeptical. Musk said “No further TSLA sales planned after today,” in April but continued to sell stock. Musk said again in August, regarding his Twitter acquisition, that “it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” and continued to sell stock.

The CEO pushed back on concerns that his takeover of Twitter has distracted him from Tesla, saying Thursday that he has continued to attend important meetings. Musk also previously announced his plans to eventually step down from leadership at Twitter, although he seemed to shy away earlier this week from results of a poll of Twitter users that suggested he resign.

Even without Musk’s management of Twitter and his stock sales weighing on share prices, Tesla faces challenges including inflation, interest rate hikes, and COVID-related shutdowns in China, the largest electric vehicle market. Musk has also said that the buybacks he discussed earlier in the year may not happen depending on economic conditions. In response, the auto maker has offered discounts and other incentives in an effort to boost sales at year-end. It has also told workers that it is freezing hiring and to expect layoffs next year.

Tesla shares fell as much as 3% early in the day, but stabilized down just under a percent by the afternoon.

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Image and article originally from www.investopedia.com. Read the original article here.