Tesla Shares Drop After Hedge Fund Manager David Einhorn Questions Musk’s Accounting

Tesla shares reportedly dropped 10 percent below their intraday high on Thursday after hedge fund manager David Einhorn publicly questioned Elon Musk over the firm’s accounting practices. This was before the shares took another haircut in Friday’s trading action when Musk himself posted to social media that Tesla’s share price is “too high.”

Bloomberg reports that Tesla shares dropped 10 percent off their intraday highs Thursday after hedge fund manager David Einhorn questioned Tesla CEO Elon Musk over the electric-car manufacturers accounting practices.

Einhorn told Musk months ago that he was “beginning to wonder whether your accounts receivable exist,” now he’s stating that Tesla had claimed in the past that its balance of money owed was elevated by sales being highly concentrated at the end of each quarter.

Einhorn, the president of Greenlight Capital, questioned how that could have been the case at the end of March given the shutdowns caused by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, which Musk has spoken out against.

In a tweet addressed to Musk, referencing Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn, Einhorn requested that Musk explain the company’s accounting practices:

Einhorn further questioned how the company’s automotive margins “barely budged” despite production disruptions, the cost of increasing the Model Y production, and other factors. Tesla shares closed down 2.3 percent after erasing an intraday gain of as much as 8.7 percent.

In a recent regulatory filing, Tesla disclosed that an unidentified entity represented 10 percent or more of its accounts-receivable balance as of March 31. The contribution was related to sales of regulatory credits, according to Tesla.

“I guess the offer of a factory tour was never serious,” Einhorn said in his latest tweet.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com