Tesla has been facing a rough stretch in recent weeks, with its stock price plummeting and key executives offloading millions of dollars in shares. Since early February, four top officers at the electric vehicle maker have sold over $100 million in stock, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Among those selling shares is James Murdoch, a longtime ally of Elon Musk and a Tesla board member since 2017. Murdoch exercised a stock option and sold shares worth approximately $13 million on March 10, the same day Tesla suffered its largest single-day stock decline in five years. According to SEC filings, the sale was made to cover the exercise price of stock options set to expire in 2025.
Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s brother and a fellow Tesla board member, also cashed out 75,000 shares worth roughly $27 million last month. Additionally, Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s board chair, sold over $75 million worth of stock in two transactions over the past five weeks. Denholm’s sales were executed under a prearranged trading plan adopted in July 2024, designed to prevent executives from being accused of trading on insider information.
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The selloffs come at a particularly challenging time for Tesla. The company’s stock has fallen nearly 50% from its mid-December peak, a decline that has only accelerated in recent weeks. The situation has been compounded by weak demand, increasing competition, and growing investor unease over Musk’s political controversies.
“Whenever insiders, including directors, are selling shares, it’s not a positive signal,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida. While prearranged sales like Denholm’s are common, the timing of the broader selloff has raised concerns among investors.
Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja also sold over $5 million worth of shares in recent weeks, including one transaction not tied to a predetermined sales plan, further fueling speculation about the company’s future performance.
Adding to Tesla’s woes, JPMorgan recently slashed its forecast for the company’s first-quarter deliveries. Initially projecting 444,000 units, the bank has now revised that estimate down to just 355,000 units—well below Wall Street’s broader consensus of 430,000. If the latest projection holds, Tesla will report an 8% year-over-year drop in deliveries for Q1 2025.
The downturn in Tesla’s sales is already evident across key global markets. In January and February, Tesla’s sales in Norway plunged 44.4%, while Germany saw an even steeper drop of 70.6%. Sales in Australia and China have also suffered, signaling that demand for Tesla’s vehicles is waning.
JPMorgan analysts have further lowered their price target for Tesla’s stock to just $120 per share, a drastic cut from the $249 price it was trading at last week. The downgrade reflects growing skepticism about Tesla’s near-term performance, with analysts describing the stock’s dramatic decline as “unprecedented in the automotive industry.”
“We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly,” said Ryan Brinkman, an auto analyst at JPMorgan.
A key factor weighing on Tesla’s brand and stock performance is Musk’s increasingly polarizing political stance. His alignment with controversial figures and his vocal criticism of regulatory policies have alienated some investors and consumers. Experts warn that Musk’s politics, combined with the recent stock selloffs by Tesla’s board, are likely to contribute to a disappointing Q1 earnings report.
Investor confidence in Tesla has been further shaken by reports of growing discontent among customers, with some showrooms witnessing protests and instances of vandalism targeting Tesla vehicles and Supercharger stations. Analysts caution that unless the company can reverse its downward sales trend, Tesla’s market value and global dominance in the EV sector may continue to erode in the months ahead.