⚈ Politicians sold Tesla shares ($1,001-$250,000) in March 2025, some before an 8% drop post-Q1 earnings miss.
⚈ Tesla’s Q1 2025 earnings ($0.27/share, $19.34B revenue) missed forecasts due to competition and Musk backlash.
⚈ Tesla’s stock rose 6% to $252 after-hours on April 22, down 40% year-to-date amid supply chain issues.
In the weeks before Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) disappointing Q1 2025 earnings report, several U.S. politicians cashed out on their holdings in the electric vehicle (EV) giant.
Among them, Representative Gilbert Ray Cisneros sold Tesla shares valued between $1,001 and $15,000 on March 31, 2025. Since his trade, TSLA’s stock has dropped over 8%, making a potentially perfect-timed transaction for the short term.
New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer, a frequent trader, sold a similar amount of Tesla shares on March 19, 2025. His sale preceded a modest 0.89% gain in the company’s stock price.
On the other hand, Republican Robert Bresnahan made three Congress trades, each between $1,001 and $15,000, on March 6, 10, and 11, 2025. The outcomes varied, with a nearly 10% drop following his first transaction and gains of 7% and 3.2% following the others.
Receive Signals on US Congress Members’ Stock Trades
Stocks
Stay up-to-date on the trading activity of US Congress members. The signal triggers based on updates from the House disclosure reports, notifying you of their latest stock transactions.
Lastly, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez executed one of the most significant Tesla stock transactions in the lead-up to the earnings report. According to Finbold’s Congress Trades tracker, the lawmaker bought TSLA shares on March 4 and sold them at a value of between $100,000 and $250,000 on March 17.
This Gonzalez transaction stands out as potentially one of the largest Tesla stock sales by a politician in the past year.
Tesla’s disappointing earnings
In its April 22 earnings report for the first three months of the year, Tesla missed both earnings and revenue forecasts. The company reported adjusted earnings of $ 0.27 per share, below the $0.39 expected by analysts. Revenue was $19.34 billion, down 9% from $21.3 billion the previous year and short of the $21.11 billion anticipated.
Automotive revenue fell 20%, dropping to $14 billion from $17.4 billion the prior year. Despite these disappointing results, Tesla’s stock appeared resilient, rising with broader bullish market sentiment.
In after-hours trading on April 22, Tesla’s stock rose by more than 6% to $252. It closed the regular session at $237.97, up 4.6%. However, year-to-date, the share price has plummeted nearly 40%.
Tesla’s open secret challenges
The timing of these politicians’ trades raises eyebrows, as selling shares before a company’s earnings miss can fuel suspicions of insider knowledge, particularly for elected officials.
However, Tesla’s challenges in Q1 2025 were no secret. The company faced intense competition in China from domestic EV makers, such as BYD, eroding its market share.
The Texas-based technology giant also struggled with declining sales, which was exacerbated by backlash tied to CEO Elon Musk’s political views and his government role.
To this end, Tesla warned investors that evolving trade policies are disrupting global supply chains and increasing costs, while shifting political sentiment may affect near-term demand for its products, according to its shareholder deck.
Featured image from Shutterstock
Source: https://finbold.com/these-u-s-politicians-dumped-tesla-shares-just-before-big-earnings-miss/