Dec. 15 (Reuters) – Tesla (TLSA.O) Chief Elon Musk revealed another $3.6 billion in share sales on Wednesday, bringing his total to close to $40 billion this year and frustrating investors as the company’s shares wallow at two-year lows. years.
A US stock filing showed it dumped 22 million shares in the world’s most valuable automaker over three days, Monday through Wednesday.
The sale is the second large chunk of shares it has cashed in since its $44 billion purchase of Twitter in October. It’s unclear if the sales are related to the Twitter acquisition, but they are upset investors who are upset by the perception that it is shifting its attention and resources to Twitter over Tesla.
“It doesn’t put a lot of trust in the business, nor does it say a lot about where their attention is,” said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at brokerage IG Markets, where Tesla is a popular stock among smaller investors.
“It’s not a good situation. I’ve talked to a lot of investors who own Tesla stock and they’re absolutely furious with Elon.”
There was no immediate response to an emailed request for comment from Reuters by Tesla and Musk outside of business hours. Musk’s 13.4% stake in Tesla is down from 17% a year ago, according to Refinitiv data.
Tesla’s stock price has halved this year, underperforming both automakers. (.SPLRCAUTM) and the broader tech Nasdaq (.IXIC), which is down 30% this year. The value of Musk’s total sales over the last year is almost $40 billion.
“It will start to get exhausting for investors,” said Tareck Horchani, principal brokerage director at Maybank Securities in Singapore.
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Musk’s fortune, largely tied to Tesla shares, has fallen with prices this year and he briefly lost his title as the world’s richest person last week. according to Forbes – when he was outbid by Louis Vuitton boss Bernard Arnault.
In addition to Tesla and Twitter, where Musk’s management and tweets are drawing political attention and backlash, Musk also runs rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a startup developing interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.
Meanwhile, Tesla is dealing with persistent logistical challenges and said in October expected to miss this year’s vehicle delivery target. It’s more profitable than rivals that have struggled to make money selling electric cars.
The latest share sale comes a month after Musk sold $4 billion worth of shares in the days after the Twitter deal closed.
Tesla investor Ross Gerber, a strong Musk supporter, said on Twitter that Tesla should announce a buyback “to take advantage of (sic) the low stock price that Elon has created.”
Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Writing and additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore. Edited by Devika Syamnath and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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