Tesla stock will be fine even if Elon Musk decides to dump 10% of his shares after 'bizarre soap opera' Twitter poll, analyst says

• A potential sale by Elon Musk of 10% of his stake in Tesla shouldn't cause concern for investors, said Wedbush on Monday.
• He owns 170.5 million shares, which would put a 10% stake worth around $21 billion.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's potential sale of as much as 10% of his stake in the electric vehicle maker shouldn't be cause for concern among investors, said Wedbush on Monday after Musk ran a poll about whether he should sell that amount.

Musk on Saturday asked his 63 million Twitter followers whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. Musk owns 170.5 million shares, which would put a 10% stake worth around $21 billion.

The final tally of more than 3.5 million votes had 57.9% in favor of the sale and 42.1% against it, with Musk adding that he would abide by the results. Tesla stock on Monday fell as much as 7.3% to $1,133.02 then trimmed the loss to 4%.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a Monday note said it was already well known that Musk would be facing a "big tax bill" from his 23 million stock options awarded in 2012 that have vested and expire in August 2022 and that the CEO was going to sell some stock before the end of the year.

"Today Musk owns roughly 23% of Tesla and it was viewed by many on the Street that he would sell up to ~5%/6% of his ownership stake, with 10% being a higher amount that could surprise some investors but ultimately it's a digestible number we are not overly concerned about," wrote Ives.

"We would rather Musk rip the band-aid off now and sell this portion of stock rather than it lingering over the next year and feeding into any non-fundamental bear thesis on the story," he said. Wedbush reiterated its outperform rating on Tesla stock.

Musk told the Code conference in September: "A huge block of options will sell in Q4 - because I have to or they'll expire." He likely faces a tax bill of roughly $15 billion on his stock options, according to CNBC calculations.

Musk framed his Twitter poll around a proposed "billionaires' income tax" - a tax proposal from US Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden on unrealized gains that ultimately was rejected from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress, in part because of pushback from moderate Democrats.

The Twitter poll marks "another bizarre soap opera that can only happen to one company and one CEO in the world, Musk," said Ives. "Fundamentally speaking," Ives added, "Tesla remains in pole position to drive this EV adoption curve to the next level both domestically and globally with Musk & Co. leading the way."