When all the stocks are down, it’s sometimes worth pausing to appreciate how much specific stocks are really really down. For example: Tesla.
Since Tesla hit an all-time high on December 17, the shares have dropped 53 per cent:
For the period, Tesla is the world’s third-biggest faller in percentage terms outside of the small-caps:
By market capitalisation, Tesla has lost $795bn since December 17.
The company is now smaller by market cap than Berkshire Hathaway, Broadcom, Eli Lilly, Saudi Aramco and Taiwan Semiconductor. It’s still a few million ahead of Walmart. though the trading day’s not yet finished:
The drop owes everything to multiple compression, having been accompanied by a continued drift lower in consensus forecasts:
Elon Musk, a celebrity, owns 411mn Tesla shares and, having pledged more than half his stake to fund other ventures, 50.7mn options on shares. Based on Bloomberg data, his net worth has fallen by around $150bn over the past three months.
Maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity.
Further reading:
— Tesla’s departure from reality, in one chart (FTAV)