Elon Musk, the world’s second-richest billionaire, has experienced the largest wealth increase this year despite intense investor pressure to buy Tesla stock. His net worth has increased by a whopping $45 billion between January and now.
With a net worth of $182 billion, Mr. Musk’s net worth is now close to that of Bernard Arnault ($187 billion) who is currently the world’s richest man.
Tesla’s share rise: The share price of the electric vehicle manufacturer has risen by 65% to $201.29 since January. Tesla’s increase in value, along with the overall market’s upward trend, came in with stronger-than-anticipated fourth-quarter earnings, and other events that the market saw as favorable portents of future performance.
Investors are placing a lot of money on the stock since data indicates that the company is doing well despite heightened geopolitical uncertainty. The company’s Q4 results, which were released on Jan. 25 by the company, served as the most favourable valuation trigger.
Tesla’s financial report: The EV manufacturer reported non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $1.19 on revenue of $24.32 billion, compared to the consensus analyst expectation of $1.13 on $24.16 billion in sales. The stock received a new boost of positive momentum from the top and bottom-line beats, but there were other drivers of performance in the previous month.
Previous complaints by investors: Before now, Tesla investors have been expressing worry that Musk’s other engagements were distracting him from Tesla’s affairs. They also worried that Musk might sell Tesla shares to cover Twitter’s losses.
But on February 5, Musk assuaged investors’ fears by noting that Twitter was close to breaking even. This helped to lessen the possibility of further Tesla stock sales. Since then, Tesla stock has risen by around 6%. Over the same time, the Nasdaq Composite is down nearly 2%.
Some investors are still sceptical: However, some investors are sitting on the sidelines because the environment of rising interest rates has put pressure on the valuations of many growth firms. However, it appears that tensions on that front are starting to ease.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points at its meeting on February 1; this was a welcome relief from the central bank’s previous four 75-basis-point increases and one 50-basis-point increase. The Fed anticipates rising rates indefinitely, but it appears that rate increases are having the expected impact of containing inflation.
Recall that the year 2022 was so bad for Elon Musk that he broke Guinness World Records for the most money lost by one person. Musk had lost about $200 billion since November 2021, largely due to Tesla stocks’ poor performance