Tanks rant on Elon Musk’s Twitter Tesla’s stock price: Really, what’s up?

Elon Musk is portraying some of his biggest and strangest successes: manipulating Tesla’s stock price, questioning the coronavirus pandemic, and being generally chaotic on Twitter.

On Friday, the South African-born businessman released a series of missives on Twitter. The declared he is selling all his possessions and his home, again called to free the United States from coronavirus blockades, and said Tesla’s share price is too high.

Beyond the obvious sentiment of “exactly what’s going on in the world with Elon Musk,” Tesla investors are probably not as enthusiastic about their online adventures. The share price of the electric car company fell about 10 percent.

Well known for being unpredictable, Musk, 48, has the ability to inject even more uncertainty into already uncertain times. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, it’s been all over the map: first he said the panic over the global pandemic was silly, then he decided it was serious and he wanted to help, and now, like protesters in state Capitols demanding the end of social distancing rules, asking that the country be released from protection measures.

Musk also got into hot water when he tweeted about Tesla earlier and caused major movements in his share price. You are now supposed to have some protective barriers around your social media activities, but apparently the Tesla CEO is not paying too much attention to them.

After his little storm of tweets on Friday, Musk noticed that his girlfriend, musician Grimes, is mad at him. Tesla investors probably are, too.

Some people speculated that Musk’s account had been hacked. It is not clear if that is the case. Twitter declined to comment on the tweets, and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

If this feels like déjà vu, it is because it is

So here’s the thing: Musk may be right that Tesla’s stock is overvalued. According to the Wall Street Journal, most analysts who follow the stock have it as a reserve or sale, which means they do not recommend buying it. Even with Friday’s decline, Tesla’s stock price rose roughly 70 percent annually through the afternoon.

That said, Tesla has also reported earnings for three consecutive quarters, including its first-quarter earnings release, which came out this week and raised shares by around 9 percent.

But whatever the merits of Tesla’s stock valuation, that’s not the point. The point is, CEOs don’t send tweets about their share prices, let alone say they’re too high. And what’s more, this is not the first time that Musk has been in a pinch regarding the stock price relative to Tesla.

In the summer of 2018, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla privately at $ 420 and stated that he had secured funds for such an agreement. In turn, the company’s share price skyrocketed to the point that the Nasdaq stock exchange halted the shares for a time.

After this, Tesla tried to do some clean-up and explained that Musk had spoken to the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund about some possible funds, but it was not enough. The US Securities and Exchange Commission. USA He sued Musk for cheating investors with his tweet, and in September 2018, the parties reached a settlement. Musk was required to resign as Tesla’s chair; Tesla and Musk paid $ 40 million in fines; And the company hired an attorney to monitor its communications, including tweets.

Musk got into trouble with Twitter again in February 2019, and in April of that year, an updated deal also attempted to curb Musk’s use of social media and was supposed to prevent him from tweeting about things that could move the company stock price. Judging from Musk’s Friday internet adventures, it seems like he’s not too worried about facing the SEC again.

Elon goes to Elon, but maybe Elon could less

Musk is not alone in being weird on Twitter. But the problem is that what he says and does there and in other parts of the public has very real implications. For one thing, people hear it on the front of the coronavirus, so if you say it’s a joke or suggest that the blockages should be terminated, others might follow suit.

And while investors aren’t always the most sympathetic class, a loose cannon CEO who can cost you a ton of money, especially with the especially volatile stock market and economy right now, isn’t doing you any favors. Perhaps especially in Musk’s case, many of Tesla’s investors have parked their money there because of Musk, because they are fans of him and believe in his abilities. With a single tweet, Musk damaged many people who support him and his company. Musk also has an obligation to his employees to be responsible to the future of the company.

Ultimately, Elon is going to do it, as he has proven time and time again. It seems like he’s working out a few things on Twitter, and I hope he’s doing fine.

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