Billionaire investor David Einhorn reveals a new bet against Tesla, reviving his battle with Elon Musk
- David Einhorn has revealed a new bet against Tesla, despite losing big money shorting the stock in 2020.
- Einhorn's Greenlight Capital bought puts against 100,000 Tesla shares, a 13F filing showed Monday.
Billionaire investor David Einhorn has revealed a new bet against Tesla, despite having hemorrhaged money by shorting the company in 2020.
Einhorn's Greenlight Capital investment firm bought 1,000 put contracts against 100,000 Tesla shares in the fourth quarter, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares were notionally worth $106 million.
Einhorn's bet marks a renewal of his long-running bearishness on Tesla stock. In recent years, the famed hedge fund manager has moved in and out of positions against the company, leading to tensions with its outspoken CEO Elon Musk.
A put option gives the holder the right to sell stock at a certain price in the future, allowing them to profit from a fall in a company's shares.
The filing from Greenlight, published Monday, doesn't disclose the value of the bet against Tesla. Einhorn could since have exited the trade and may have booked a decent profit, with Tesla down 17% year-to-date amid a general tech sell-off.
Greenlight Capital's bet against Tesla was its biggest loser in 2020, when the electric vehicle company's stock soared more than 700%. Nonetheless, Einhorn said at the end of that year that owning Tesla stock is a "fad" and that the stock price was "silly."
Einhorn and Musk clashed in 2019, with the Tesla boss taking to Twitter to gloat about the rise in the company's stock price and harshly criticize Greenlight and its short position. "I'm certain your investors would appreciate you getting smart on Tesla," Musk wrote.
Greenlight's new bet against Tesla was revealed in a 13F filing, a quarterly report required of all investment managers with at least $100 million of assets.
The investment fund's disclosed holdings rose 10% in value in the fourth quarter to $1.64 billion, according to a Bloomberg analysis.