Tesla Stock Price Drops After Majority of Twitter Poll Voters Say Elon Musk Should Sell Stock

Isabella James, Tech Times 08 November 2021, 09:11 pm

Tesla's stock price has dropped following a Twitter poll posted by none other than the company's CEO, Elon Musk, showing that voters want him to sell some of his stock in the company. Stock price went down by 4.9%.

As of press time, 57.9% of the poll's voters are in favor of the Tesla CEO selling 10% of his Tesla stock. Musk has tweeted that he plans on abiding by the results of his Twitter poll.

The Twitter poll of the Tesla CEO comes after US Democrats proposed a so-called "billionaires tax." The said proposal aims to tax billionaires' assets, including their shares.

Elon Musk owns 20.7% of Tesla's total shares. The 10% of his shares that he is proposing to sell amounts to $21 billion.

Tesla Stock Price Drops

Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.

Do you support this?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021

Tesla's stock price has dropped after the company's CEO, Elon Musk, asked Twitter users via a poll whether or not he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock.

According to a report by the BBC, Tesla's stock price has decreased by 4.9% due to the Twitter poll.

Musk's poll shows that, as of press time, 57.9% of the voters are in favor of the Tesla CEO selling 10% of his Tesla stock. The remaining 42.1% are not in favor of the idea.

In a succeeding tweet, the Tesla CEO said that he will abide by the results of his Twitter poll.

AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould, who is quoted in the BBC report, said that "Elon Musk doesn't like to do things in a conventional way and so holding a poll on Twitter about whether he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla might seem crazy, but one could say it is normal behaviour for him."

Elon Musk's Tesla Stock

According to a report by Forbes, Elon Musk owns 20.7% of the total shares of Tesla. The stock he owns amounts to 193.3 million Tesla shares.

For reference, the company's market capitalization is at $1.22 trillion as of press time.

Per the BBC report, 10% of Elon Musk's shares in Tesla has a value of $21 billion as of Friday's closing prices.

"Billionaires Tax"

According to the BBC, the Tesla CEO posted his Twitter poll after the Democrats in the United States proposed a so-called "billionaires tax," which aims to tax billionaires' assets, including their company shares.

The BBC reports note that billionaires are usually compensated through shares and they only pay taxes once these shares have been sold.

In a subsequent tweet after his Twitter poll was posted, Elon Musk himself said that he does not "take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere."

"I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock," he added.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Isabella James