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Elon Musk says Tesla’s stock price is too high, and now it has fallen

Elon Musk says Tesla’s stock price is too high, and now it has fallen

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He got what he wanted

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday that Tesla’s stock price is “too high imo,” and the stock fell immediately after. Tesla’s stock is down more than 10 percent.

Last year, Musk made an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to have a company lawyer pre-approve tweets about Tesla’s finances, sales, or deliveries last April. The settlement exists because Musk tweeted he was thinking of taking Tesla private, “funding secured.” The SEC sued him for securities fraud as a result.

Here is Musk’s entire tweet:

On February 19th of last year, Musk tweeted that Tesla would make “around” 500,000 Tesla Model 3s in 2019, which was not in line with the company’s guidance at that time. The SEC then asked Musk if he was complying with the order to have his tweets reviewed. It turned out that he wasn’t, which led to a weeks-long legal battle for a stricter settlement agreed upon in April 2019. Tesla and Musk are still defending themselves from shareholder lawsuits stemming from the go private tweets.

When asked by The Wall Street Journal if he was joking in today’s tweet about Tesla’s stock price or if the tweet had been vetted, Musk only replied “No” in an email.

Musk followed today’s tweet about the stock price being too high by tweeting the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” America’s national anthem. This also has echoes of his response to the SEC: he’s called the agency’s response to his February 19th tweets “an unconstitutional power grab.”

Update May 1st, 1:57PM ET: Added comment from Musk obtained by The Wall Street Journal.