June 13 (UPI) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought 72,500 shares of his company this week, according to Security and Exchange Commission filings.
The eight transactions conducted Tuesday and Wednesday come out to more than $25 million worth of stock. Musk is Tesla’s largest shareholder and now owns about 19 percent of the company.
The SEC filings were made public one day after Musk announced he would lay off 9 percent of Tesla’s workforce — about 3,000 employees.
Observers saw the purchases as an effort by Musk to show confidence in his company after the announcement of layoffs, The Telegraph reported.
That effort appeared to have worked, at least in the short term, as Tesla share values increased in after-hours trading.
But Tesla’s stock value has been in good shape and has steadily increased in value over the past few weeks, despite controversies over labor disputes, working conditions and the layoffs announced this week.
Nonetheless, financial experts like Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates say there is still some doubt about whether the electric car company can be profitable.
“The basic problem is that he is making the cars at not enough of a gross margin to make money,” Chanos told CNBC.
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