Tesla Inc. TSLA, Chief Executive Elon Musk exercised options on 175,000 shares in the automobile company, adding to his stake at prices less than one-third the going rate. Musk's options on more than 5 million Tesla shares matured years ago, and
he previously exercised more than 500,000 options at a lower price. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk exercised the fresh shares Monday at a price of $31.17, paying the cost of exercising the options -- nearly $5.5 million -- as well as the taxes without selling other shares. Musk still has access to about 4.6 million vested options, according to the SEC filing, and they expire in a little more than three years. Before Monday's option exercise, Musk owned 19.5% of Tesla stock, according to FactSet. Tesla stock closed Tuesday at $205.08, after declining about 29% in the past 12 months.
Tesla seems to be hanging in there despite the eye-opening capitulation by former uber-bulls Adam Jonas (Morgan Stanley) and Dan Ives (Wedbush) this week and some more Model 3 pricing news.
The company "significantly"
reduced the base price of its newly upgraded Model S and Model X vehicles, notes Electrek. The website reports that the standard 285-mile range Model S starts at $78K and the Model X starts at $83K for the 250-mile range.
The EV automaker responded to the pricing development: "Like other car companies, we periodically adjust pricing and available options. These pricing changes represent a reduction of about 2% to 3% in Model X and S prices. Last week, we raised US Model 3 prices by 1%. By any reasonable standard, these small changes are not newsworthy."
On
CNBC this morning, Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin stated that Apple made a serious bid to acquire Tesla at $240 per share around 2013 and teased the idea that the company could still be interested at the $200 level with Apple's Project Titan still alive. Irwin sees Tesla's shares nearing their floor even as he concedes Model 3 demand is being hurt by the lack of a true $35K version.
There's also the question of Elon Musk and margin calls being floated around. Any thoughts?