Elon Musk used to be a guy who occasionally did eccentric things, like smoking weed on-air with Joe Rogan and firing off Twitter posts that cost him $20 million and one of his gigs. But in the last several months have found the world’s richest man stepping things up several notches. Nowadays he’s in the news just about every day, for one thing or another. But now it appears his unpredictable, trolly antics may finally start catching up with him.
According to Forbes, stock in Tesla, Inc., one of the companies of which Musk is CEO, sank to an 11-month low, down 49% from its all-time high in November. Valued at over $1.2 trillion at its peak just over six months ago, it has now fallen to $650 billion.
The stock tumble can partly be blamed on manufacturing issues, as per Forbes:
Prompting the steep decline, Daiwa analyst Jairam Nathan on Tuesday morning lowered his price target for Tesla shares to $800 from $1,150—telling clients Covid lockdowns in Shanghai, where the electric-vehicle maker operates its so-called Gigafactory, as well as supply issues impacting its Austin and Berlin plants, will cut deeper into earnings than previously expected.
Musk’s proposed plan to buy Twitter isn’t helping either. Dan Ives, an analyst with the private banking company Wedbush, says that “patience is wearing very thin” among Tesla shareholders in regard to Musk’s hectic back-and-forth with the social media giant. “This [takeover] circus show has been a major overhang on Tesla’s stock and has been a black eye for Musk so far,” Ives said, adding that “major market pressure for tech stocks” has only exacerbated their concern.
It’s also cost Musk access to the $200 billion club, a group so elite he was its only member. He is now worth a measly $199 billion, though he can take comfort in still having more money than anyone else on the planet.
(Via Forbes)