Elon Musk took to Twitter on Friday last week to say that Tesla’s share price is “too high”, prompting the car manufacturer’s shares to plummet by 13 per cent.
On Friday, Musk stated “Tesla stock price is too high imo,” before adding that he plans to sell “almost all physical possessions.” While it’s not unusual for Musk to ‘go rogue’ on Twitter, this statement shocked investors and sent shares falling by as much as 13 per cent, settling at $701.32 at close on Friday.
This ended a tumultuous week for Tesla that started on Wednesday when Musk veered off-script during an earnings call where he rallied against shutdown orders across the United States, Business Insider reports.
Tesla stock price is too high imo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020
“Frankly, I would call it forcible imprisoning of people in their homes against all of their constitutional rights, in my opinion,” he said. “It’s breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why they came to America or built this country. What the f—. Excuse me. Outrage. Outrage.”
Musk most infamously tweeted out in August 2018 that he had the “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share. That quickly prompted an investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission and saw Musk and Tesla both fined $20 million each. Additionally, Tesla was forced to establish a committee to oversee Musk’s tweets, particularly those that could have a material impact on the company’s share price.
Claiming Tesla’s “stock price is too high” has done just that, impacted the company’s shares. It remains to be seen if Musk’s tweets were checked before being posted and we wouldn’t be surprised if the SEC comes sniffing…