Dan Ives says Elon Musk sells Tesla Stock to fund Twitter Damaging

• Elon Musk’s sales growth continues TeslaShares are being lost as he focuses his attention on his newly acquired Twitter, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives stated Thursday. 
• Tesla CEO Carlos Tesla clocked in $3.6 billion more Tesla stock this week.
• Ives said that the board of Tesla will eventually be confronted by investor frustrations.

Elon Musk just sold more than $3 billionThe value of TeslaShares in a move at most partially designed to free capital to service bank loans sitting on Twitter’s balance sheets

Investment firm Wedbush said in a new client note that his continued focus on making that mega-acquisition work is denting the EV maker’s brand — something that could cause the Tesla board to step in.

“The Twitter nightmare continues, as Musk uses Tesla to fund the red ink at Twitter. The situation gets worse as more advertisers flee the platform driven by Musk,” stated Dan Ives, Wedbush analyst. “When does it end?”

Ives already kicked Tesla off the firm’s “Best Ideas” listReturned in November

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed Wednesday that Musk —  the CEO of Tesla and privately held Twitter and Space X — cashed in another $3.6 billion of Tesla stock this week. His Tesla stake was reduced to 13.4% by the sales. Musk has already sold billions in Tesla shares to finance his $44 Billion purchase of Twitter, which closed in October. 

Tesla stock plunged 55% in 2022 due to some investors seeing Musk’s attention via social media as a reason for their loss. distraction.

Ives stated that Musk has transformed the Tesla story from one of fundamental EV transformation into one of managing Twitter funds. Musk has billions in assets. bank loansTo help purchase Twitter, loans that require interest payments and are on Twitter’s balance sheet will be available. 

Musk has been awarded backlash from Twitter staffOver demands to work long hours, and has been criticized by enacting mass layoffsAnd sending out controversial tweets including one mocking gender pronouns.

“While we remain positive on the long-term thesis Tesla and believe the stock has oversold, Musk continues fueling the fire around the Tesla story with his continued sale of stock and creation of Tesla brand deterioration via his actions on Twitter,” stated Ives. 

“We believe it’s reaching the point where more activism and growing investor dissatisfaction will force the Board of Tesla face some of these issues head on in the near term,” he said. He noted that Wedbush retains its outperform rating for Tesla due to fundamental long-term electric car prospects.

On Wednesday, Loup Capital’s Gene MunsterMusk believes that Tesla’s brand is being damaged by his mistakes on Twitter and that he must “put it all together.”