From the stock market star to the drop-out paper: the fall in the share price of Tesla continued on Friday. At just over $150, Tesla shares fell to a two-year low. In 2022 alone, they have already lost 57 percent in value. Since the record high of just over a year, the minus has added up to 63 percent: Two thirds of Tesla’s market capitalization have disappeared within 13 months.
Two-thirds of the stock market value gone since the record high
The previously hyped papers from the electric car manufacturer have been suffering from concerns about demand for a while. Added to this is the fact that corporate leaders Elon Musk (51) currently seems distracted by his new role as owner and CEO of the price news service Twitter. And since Musk needs money to finance the Twitter takeover, he has recently continued to sell Tesla shares, which is further depressing the price.
Most recently, between December 12 and December 14, Musk sold almost 22 million Tesla shares for a total of almost $3.6 billion. It was the fourth time this year that he had divested himself of billions in Tesla shares, believed to be instrumental in financing the controversial $44 billion Twitter purchase. With this, Musk continues to antagonize the investors in the US electric car manufacturer.
“The Twitter nightmare continues”
“The Twitter nightmare continues,” commented Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who recently criticized Musk for increasingly concentrating his management capacities on Twitter instead of Tesla. Musk is now a villain in the eyes of Tesla investors, Ives said. In his opinion, Tesla’s fundamentals remain healthy, but Musk’s behavior on Twitter hurts the brand. “Musk’s self-inflicted Twitter-related woes continue to weigh on the Tesla story and growing investor frustration.”
Despite the price drop, it is still worth more than BMW, Mercedes and VW together
The losses in value in the portfolios of investors are enormous. At the beginning of 2022, Tesla was still worth around $850 billion. Now it’s around $470 billion. However, Tesla is still worth more on the stock exchange than its German competitors BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen combined. They make it less than half in Summer.
Musk will remain a major Tesla shareholder after the sale. He now owns 13.4 percent of the shares. After all, observers do not expect any further package sales in the short term, since the window for possible sales closed again on Friday. Because of the publication of the quarterly figures in January, the Tesla boss is now no longer allowed to sell any shares.