Tesla has surged more than 20% since Elon Musk warned of the 'short burn of the century'

Joe Skipper/Reuters

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, speaks during a press conference.

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in early May that the "short burn of the century comin soon."
• Since his tweet, shares have risen more than 20%.
• Still, short-sellers have upped their bets against the stock.
• Watch Tesla trade in real-time here.

Elon Musk appears to have made good on his promise of the "short burn of the century" - at least for now.

Since Tesla's chief executive tweeted the warning to short sellers, shares of his electric-car maker have risen by just over 21% from $283 to close at $344.78 on Thursday.

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"Oh and uh short burn of the century comin soon," Musk tweeted on May 4 following a conference call that one analyst said was the most bizarre thing he had witnessed in decades. "Flamethrowers should arrive just in time."

In the roughly six weeks since, despite ongoing questions from Wall Street about Tesla's ability to turn a profit this year and live without a cash infusion as Musk has promised, the stock surged as high as $354, fueled by announcements of a companywide restructuring. The gains took Tesla's stock price above the Wall Street consensus of $317 for the first time in months.

Musk himself also reaffirmed his commitment to the stock, buying up $25 million worth of Tesla stock the day after laying off 9% of his workforce.

But that hasn't detracted investors betting Tesla's stock price will eventually sink once again. In the weeks since, short sellers have upped their wagers against Tesla shares by $1.1 billion, or about 9.6%, according to data from financial analytics firm S3 Partners. Tesla remains the most shorted US stock, with $12.6 billion riding against it.

Shares of Tesla are still about 10% below their all-time high of $389.57, set in mid-2017.

Markets Insider