Tesla stock

Tesla is highly traded, and Elon Musk's sale of more than $16 billion worth of stock last year did not appear to push share prices lower.

A lot about Mr. Musk’s plan to buy Twitter is unknown, including how involved he would be. Among those who believe in Tesla’s valuation, which is much higher than rival automakers’ relative to the size of its operations, a lot of the argument depends on Mr. Musk’s stewardship. Even Tesla acknowledges this, stating as a risk in its most recent quarterly report: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, techno-king of Tesla and our chief executive officer. Tesla is a component in both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite index. But in the past six months, Tesla shares have twice fallen nearly 12 percent, on Nov. 9 and Jan. 27. Its stock’s drop of 3.7 percent on Tuesday contributed more to the overall index’s decline. Such sales would have to be reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but those reports are not instantaneous. He would need to sell nearly 24 million shares at Tuesday’s price to generate $21 billion in cash. Mr. Musk’s financing package for Twitter also includes $12.5 billion in loans using his Tesla shares as collateral. Tesla’s shares have lost about 20 percent of their value since Mr. Musk first revealed that he had bought a big stake in Twitter, kicking off takeover speculation. Even for Mr. Musk, who is worth well north of $200 billion, that’s a lot of cash to come up with. Given Tesla’s enormous market capitalization and its inclusion in major stock indexes, almost everybody with a 401(k) probably owns some Tesla stock.