Elon Musk has amassed more than 58 million followers on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). The well-known Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO is active on the social media platform and in 2018 tweeted something that got him and his company in trouble while also putting a bigger spotlight on the electric vehicle company.
Musk Tweets: On Aug. 7, 2018, Musk tweeted he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
Tesla of course remains a public company and was not taken private in 2018.
The SEC frowned on the tweet as Tesla did not have funding for a deal and Twitter was not the correct avenue to disclose such a transaction.
Tesla agreed to pay a $20 million fine and Musk stepped down as the chairman of the company for a period of three years.
Tesla shares traded lower after Musk later said the company would not go private and it was too big to do so.
Related Link: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Elon Musk
Investing $1,000 In Tesla: Despite the initial move lower in Tesla shares, people who bought shares of the electric vehicle company have done well since Musk’s tweet.
Shares of Tesla traded at $387.45 at their high on Aug. 7, 2018. A customer could have purchased 2.58 shares of Tesla with $1,000.
A 5:1 split in August 2020 happened for Tesla shares, turning the 2.58 hypothetical shares into 12.9 shares.
Those 12.9 shares of Tesla would be worth $8,977.11 today based on a share price of $695.90 on July 30, 2021.
Investing in Tesla shares on Musk’s tweet of going private has yielded a near 800% return in less than three years.
See also: How to Invest in Tesla Stock
Image by Iván Jesus Rojas from Pixabay
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