Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself may not “really follow the stock that much,” as he told Bloomberg TV’s Betty Liu, but does his wallet pay attention? His company’s shares are down about 6 percent today to about $240.15 after the unveiling Thursday night of the D, the all-wheel-drive version of the company’s electric Model S sedan. The D also has autopilot features — you’ll be able to summon the car to drive itself to you — maybe Wall Street didn’t get the memo.
Tesla shares tend to do some acrobatics from time to time, and Liu noted in the Bloomberg TV interview that Tesla’s shares rose sharply (about 5 percent the next day) when Musk teased the coming of the “D” over a week ago. Musk’s response: “That seems like an unlikely thing to happen just based on a tweet, but I don’t know… I think the stock moves for random reasons. And if that ends up being a mood barometer then it’s not a happy land.”
Perhaps investor disappointment has to do with the lack of the element of surprise; some correctly guessed last week that the D would be an AWD version of the Model S. Musk told Liu: “I think the Internet is very good at figuring out secrets at this point. There’s no privacy anymore. I think we were able to keep a few of the important details.”
By the way, as Dana Hull wrote, there was no mention of the Model X last night. “Since no Model X was unveiled, it leaves the catalyst [for future growth] on the horizon,” said analyst Ben Kallo of R.W. Baird & Co. Maybe investors will think this is cause for optimism come Monday.
Till then, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire wealth tracker, Musk’s net worth is down more than $433 million as of this post, to $8.9 billion.
Photo of Elon Musk by Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News archives
