This year saw the worst share price performance of Tesla, but it did not affect the confidence among small retail investors on Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk. As indicated by the statistics of Vanda Research who tracks transactions from small retail investors, confident investors are continuously buying in, and exhibited significant purchases during December, where net purchases among small retail investors had arrived at an all-time high in both December and the fourth quarter.
These supporting fans had finally gotten some returns on the 28th, when Tesla’s share price rose 3.3% and closed at US$112.71 after seven consecutive days of reduction. Tesla’s share price had plummeted 70% as of December 27th, and collapsed nearly US$720 billion in market value.
Thwarted growth stocks under risen interest rates, as well as the declining demand amidst the weakening economy, and Musk’s shift of focus after acquiring Twitter, had contributed to Tesla’s slump in share prices, which placed the company at the third worst spot in the S&P 500 Index this year.
Viraj Patel, senior analyst at Vanda, pointed out that small retail investors had purchased more of Tesla’s shares in the past six months compared to that of the past 60 months, and commented, “For institute investors, it is a heaven for sellers when there are sellers who do not understand the fundamentals.”
The recent news on the drop of production from Giga Shanghai had also led to a plunge of 11% for Tesla’s share prices, and aroused market concerns towards the delivery figures of the fourth quarter, as well as the previously weakened demand.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, commented that investors have slightly depleted in confidence as the fairytale of Tesla came to a sudden abruption, and are now longing to see how the deteriorating economy would impact Tesla’s demand, how competitors would impact its market share, as well as when Musk would stop with his nonsense.
Lu Hsing-chi, former analyst in foreign investment, also criticized Musk for his derelict in duty by messing with Twitter, and sold a large amount of stocks in December after seeing a significant drop in EV demand. In addition, EV competitors have been frequently releasing new vehicles, though Tesla has been constantly delaying its deliveries, where the 10.69.3.1 version of self-driving has yet to arrive at L3, while the misleading coverage from foreign media regarding how the company’s share prices that have yet to hit rock bottom may prompt Musk’s departure by major shareholders in order to teach the latter a lesson.
Lu carried on and said that Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, had once been removed from the company by shareholders during his salad days, but the company was even worse after being taken over by a new successor, which is why Lu suggested that Apple should merge with Tesla, where Musk’s innovation and Cook’s execution would lead to iPhone quality among Tesla products.
(Cover photo source: Flickr/Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine CC BY 2.0)