Tesla shares fell 12% Tuesday — nearly putting its market cap back under $1 trillion less than two weeks after it entered the exclusive trillion-dollar club.
- The company shed over $150 billion in value since its peak last Thursday, according to FactSet.
The reason for the slide? It could be a company filing with the SEC that showed Elon Musk's brother, Kimbal Musk, dumped shares on Friday — the day before the Tesla chief launched a Twitter poll asking his followers if he should sell some of his stake.
- It could also have to do with the mounting expectations that Elon Musk will monetize some of his holdings.
- Insider reported Tuesday that the Tesla CEO may need to sell shares to service his personal loans.
The bottom line: “The stock is extremely overvalued from a long-term perspective, and investors are struggling with the valuation,” Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. analyst Matt Portillo told Bloomberg. The stock-sale poll was an excuse for investors to pull back, he said.