Tesla Thrives

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 4, 9:32AM EST

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Concerns about Tesla sales beat down the company’s stock, and founder Elon Mush’s odd approach toward Twitter, which he now owns, did not help matters. However, the Tesla stock sprung back as Musk said it could sell as many as two million cars this year. A remarkable number of individual investors also drove over $14 billion in purchases of Tesla’s stock that individuals made this year.

Giacomo Pierantoni, head of data at Vanda said, according to the Journal, “The aggregate retail inflows into Tesla have never been higher.” Part of the reason is that Tesla trades 177 million shares a day. Ford, considered widely traded, moves 61 million shares per day.

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Why has this happened? First, Tesla is a cult stock. It has had a following among investors for many years. Musk is one of the best-known people in the world. According to brand valuation research, Tesla is one of the best-known brands and most valuable.

Tesla remains the best-selling electric car in the world by far. Coverage of its self-driving features appears in the press repeatedly. The self-driving feature has not always gotten good coverage. Some say it is dangerous and has caused crashes.

Musk has been one of the most visible people in the world, on par with national leaders and celebrities. His comments are often considered ill-advised but are widely quoted. Musk is viewed as a hero by some and a villain by others.

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Musk’s purchase of Twitter has made him even more famous. He has fired thousands of people from the company. Outsiders worry he will let anyone use the platform, even if for hate speech. This portion of his fame cascades to his position at Tesla. Some investors worry this effect is not always positive. (These are the 13 biggest electric vehicle business failures in American history)

The reasons people invest in Tesla’s shares will not change soon. Retail investors will continue to pile into the stock in record numbers.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.