By Investing.com Staff
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk responded to investors on Twitter suggesting the company should do a buyback, reiterating the decision "is up to the Tesla board."
Twitter user @KoGuan Leo tweeted: "not to dump more shares for any reason bc investors are feeling the brunt of the dump; but wise to start buyback now for any reason because it is the right timing and the right thing to do," which prompted the response from Musk.
During the EV company's third quarter conference call in October, Musk said the company could do a $5-10 billion buyback but said it would be pending Board review and approval.
"And I think every one of our Board members has gotten questions about buybacks," Musk said at that time. "The -- we've debated the buyback idea extensively at the Board level. The Board generally thinks that it makes sense to do a buyback. But we want to work through the right process to do a buyback, but it's certainly possible for us to do a buyback on the order of $5 billion to $10 billion. Even in the downside scenario next year, even given if next year is a very difficult year, we still have the ability to do a $5 billion to $10 billion buyback. This is obviously pending Board review and approval. So it's likely that we'll do some meaningful buyback."
Musk recently sold another $4B in stock following his acquisition of Twitter, putting pressure on Tesla shares on worries he would have to sell even more to prop up the struggling social media platform. Shares of Tesla are down 47% year-to-date.