Tesla’s TSLA +3.7% billionaire cofounder and CEO Elon Musk saw his fortune fall $8.9 billion on Wednesday, as Tesla stock plunged following a bearish outlook from JPMorgan JPM -0.6% analysts, Forbes reports.
In a new report, the bank’s analysts warned investors not to add Tesla stock to their portfolios before it is added to the S&P 500 Index on December 21. Tesla shares are “not only overvalued, but dramatically so,” JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman warned in his report, maintaining his longtime bearish stance on the electric-vehicle maker.
By market close, shares of Tesla were down by nearly 7%, lowering Musk’s net worth to $135.8 billion—enough to push him back to the number three spot on Forbes’ ranking of the world’s richest people. Just a day earlier, as Tesla’s stock rose following news of a $5 billion capital raise, Musk briefly overtook LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault to become the world’s second richest person. Arnault has now regained that title, adding $1 billion to his fortune on Wednesday, which now stands at$145.6 billion.
While Tesla shares fell on Wednesday and retreated from record highs earlier this week, the stock is still up more than 600% so far in 2020. The electric carmaker’s stock has been surging ever since news broke that the company will be added to the S&P 500 Index on December 21, rising by nearly 50% since S&P Global announced the move after the closing bell on November 16.
Musk owns around 21% of Tesla’s stock, plus a stake in private rocket company SpaceX. On Tuesday, reports emerged that Musk had moved his primary residence from California to Texas, which means that now the three richest people in the U.S.—Musk, Amazon AMZN -0.1% CEO Jeff Bezos and Microsoft MSFT -0.6% cofounder Bill Gates—all live in states that don’t collect state income tax.
