Shares of electric carmaker Tesla fell nearly 5.5% in pre-market trading early on Thursday after the company missed revenue expectations in its third-quarter earnings report released a day earlier.
Early on Thursday morning, Tesla shares were trading at around $209, down from $222 when markets closed on Wednesday afternoon. Tesla reported total revenue of $21.45 billion for the third quarter, falling short of analyst estimates of $21.96 billion.
The slump in Tesla shares comes after CEO Elon Musk optimistically claimed during the earnings call that the electric vehicle maker has the potential to be worth more than Apple and Aramco two of the most valuable companies in the world combined. Calling the company “recession resilient,” Musk added that he expects the company will continue to grow annual vehicle deliveries by 50% “as far into the future as we can see.” On his earlier promise that Tesla’s self-driving technology will be fully operational by the end of this year, Musk on Wednesday’s call acknowledged that he does not expect the feature to receive regulatory approval in 2022. The slump in Tesla’s stock also comes at a time when its billionaire CEO is attempting to complete a high-profile acquisition of Twitter.
In an unexpected u-turn earlier this month, Musk announced he will follow through with his original $44 billion offer to acquire the social media company, after trying to terminate the deal earlier.
