Short sellers are celebrating Tesla's plummeting stock prices, but investors aren't happy, and they're now begging CEO Elon Musk—who's sold off billions of dollars worth of his shares to help fund his newest company, Twitter—to stop dumping his stock. Tesla employees are also likely concerned that their employer's shares fell almost 70% this year, but Musk is now assuring them that all will be well if they just hang tight. "Don't be too bothered by stock market craziness," Musk wrote in a companywide Wednesday email, as first reported by Fred Lambert for the Electrek blog dedicated to electric vehicles. "As we demonstrate continued excellent performance, the market will recognize that."
He added, per CNBC: "Long-term, I believe very much that Tesla will be the most valuable company on Earth!" Musk also made an extra ask of his workers, requesting that they "please go all out for the next few days and volunteer to help deliver (cars to customers) if at all possible. It will make a real difference!" Lambert writes that all of this assurance "is easy to say for a billionaire who has sold billions of dollars worth of the company's stock over the last year—significantly contributing to the decline." Lambert also notes that a chunk of Tesla workers' compensation is made up of stock options, and that Musk often brags about how Tesla leads other automakers in that regard.
"If you are going to claim that, you can't really tell employees to 'not be bothered' by the stock price when it's falling like a rock," Lambert writes. Tesla shares have seen a 68% decline in 2022, with a 42% plunge in December alone, "poised to close out its worst month, quarter, and year on record," per CNBC. There was one tiny bright spot on Wednesday: Shares actually increased 3.3%, to $112.71. And sales seem to be chugging along as well. Citing data from Refinitiv, Reuters reports that Tesla is set to deliver more than 442,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter. (More Tesla stories.)
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