Investors expect Elon Musk to sell a large number of Tesla shares by the end of 2022. In a survey, about 75% of the respondents, including portfolio managers and retail traders, said Musk will not go ahead with his deal to acquire Twitter, which was a move that led him to dump around $8.5 billion worth of Tesla stock in April. A third of respondents predict he will settle more than $1 billion with the social media company instead of going through with the $44 billion takeover at $54.20 a share.
"Musk will likely sell the stock no matter what happens with the Twitter deal," said Mike Lucas, CEO of TrueMark Investments.
This could signal further declines for Tesla shares, which have fallen about 16% this year, more than the 13.3% decline in the S&P 500 index.
From a technical point of view, the asset has been absorbing all bullish impulses for almost the entire year, and right now it is on a breaking point.
Musk is currently the richest man in the world, having a net worth of about $260 billion, mostly due to his stake in Tesla. But he's been losing lately, so he ran a Twitter Poll in November about selling 10% of his position, then went on to sell more than 15 million shares over the next few months. He offloaded around 9.4 million Tesla shares in April following his deal to buy Twitter. In six months, $25 billion worth of shares has been sold. He is now seeking to back out of the agreement, which will be subject to an expedited hearing in October.