Tesla Stock Today: Elon Musk Sends TSLA Shares On Rollercoaster Ride With Twitter Comments

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent his own company’s share price on a rollercoaster ride Tuesday afternoon. Musk posted comments on Twitter that he was considering taking the company private.

Musk’s tweet even claimed that he had secured funding for the venture, which would apparently put share prices at $420.

It is legal for companies to make such an announcement over social media, per the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The move initially sent Tesla (TSLA) shares skyrocketing. The electric car company opened at $341 before reaching $371. Tesla shares then went down a bit, before trading was halted just after 2 p.m. ET. At the time of the halt, TSLA shares were at $367.25.

Tesla shares resumed trading just minutes before the market closed on Tuesday, closing at $379.57, a 10.99 percent increase. Shares were trading as high as $387.46.

The reason for the volatility was uncertainty over whether Musk’s tweet was serious or not, according to CNBC. At $420 per share, Tesla’s market value would go way up to $71.3 billion — a sharp uptick from its current value of $61 billion. The necessary buyout would be historically large, but CNBC could not find any Wall Street financial institutions that were aware of any such buyout.

After hours of speculation, Musk publicly shared an email he sent to Tesla employees on Tuesday. The decision has not been finalized, according to Musk, as it would need to go through a shareholder vote. However, Musk expressed optimism in the process and explained his reasoning for privatizing Tesla.

As a privately held company, Tesla would not be subject to the quarterly earnings gauntlet that publicly held companies go through four times per fiscal year. In his letter, Musk pointed out that "as the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market, being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company."

Tesla went public in June 2010. It opened at $19.00.

“I fundamentally believe that we are at our best when everyone is focused on executing, when we can remain focused on our long-term mission, and when there are not perverse incentives for people to try to harm what we’re all trying to achieve,” Musk wrote.

Musk also said it would reduce the amount of negative press directed at Tesla whenever its stocks are shorted. He said existing shareholders would be encouraged to stay, but could be bought out at $420 per share. Eventually, Musk concluded, Tesla would likely go public again after the company achieves some financial stability.

A number of major companies have gone private after being publicly held. Dell Computers, Burger King and Panera Bread are just a few examples.