RICHEST! Elon Musk Richer Than Ever, Earns 119 Bn YTD, Thanks To Tesla Stock Rally; 15:1 Splits Post Covid

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world currently, has been in the limelight throughout 2024 so far. Whether taking a stance in Israel - Hamas war to becoming Donald Trump, the newly elected US President's biggest backer, Elon Musk has been in the news. Amidst all of this, his wealth has made a significant jump so much so that the gap between him and the second richest man Jeff Bezos has widened to about $129 billion. One of the major reasons for his wealth to skyrocket is because of his electric vehicle company, Tesla Inc.

So far, the biggest billionaires whose wealth has increased significantly YTD are - Elon Musk, Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos. However, the most gains are made by Elon Musk in 2024 so far.

Year-to-date, Elon Musk made about $119 billion, taking his net worth to $348 billion, followed by Larry Ellison who made the second largest gains of $83.2 billion, taking his wealth to 200 billion dollars club, to $206 billion net worth. Ellison's Oracle shares have zoomed by 85% YTD.

Notably, despite the world's largest AI stock Nvidia emerging as a multibagger of 2024 with gains of a whopping 195% on Nasdaq, its CEO and founder Jensen Huang's wealth only grew by $79.9 billion taking his total net worth to $124 billion as of November 22, 2024.

Moreover, with Meta stock surging by 61.5% YTD, Zuckerberg's surged by $70 billion, totalling $198 billion. On the other hand, at the fifth rank in the gainers list, Jeff Bezos made about $41.7 billion YTD, which took his net worth to $219 billion even when Amazon shares advanced by 31.5%.

However, the top five richest men in chronological order are - Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zucker. At the fifth spot is the largest fashion brand Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault with a wealth of $163 billion, making him the only billionaire from outside the technology sector in the top 5 richest list. Unlike the above four richest men in the world, Arnault's wealth has declined by a massive $44.2 billion.

Compared to others, Elon Musk's wealth skyrocketed by 51.9% YTD or by $119 billion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Musk is the CEO of publicly traded Tesla, the world's most valuable carmaker, and closely held rocket business SpaceX.

He owns about 13% of Tesla, according to an April 2023 regulatory filing. He also holds about 304 million exercisable stock options from his 2018 compensation package. On Jan. 30, 2024, this compensation package was voided by a Delaware judge. The options were not immediately removed from the calculation pending additional information on how the ruling would be implemented and a possible appeal, the index highlighted.

Further, the billionaires' index also pointed out that SpaceX is valued using a June 2024 tender offer valuing the company at about $210 billion. Musk owns about 42% of the closely held company through a trust based on a December 2022 filing with the Federal Communications Commission and Bloomberg's dilution calculations.

Musk also holds ownership of X Corp, formerly known as Twitter. He has stakes in startups such as Neuralink, xAI and The Boring Company.

Among the major boosters to Elon Musk's net worth is the strong rally in Tesla shares. SpaceX and X Corp are private companies.

Tesla Share Price:

The EV stock is currently at $352.56 on Nasdaq. YTD, the stock has zoomed by 42%. At the start of 2024, the stock was merely at the $248.42 level. Noteworthily, the stock touched its new 52-week high of $361.53 last week on Friday. From its 52-week low of $138.80, the stock skyrocketed by 160.5% from its 52-week high and was up by 154% from its closing price of November 22.

Post-COVID pandemic, Tesla shares have also split twice, multiplying shareholders portfolios and most likely Elon Musk's too. Its first stock split took place on August 31, 2020, in the ratio of 5:1, meaning 1 equity share was split into 5 equity shares. This followed another stock split of 3:1 on August 25, 2022, where 1 equity share was split into 3 equity shares. Compounding both, if an investor has stayed rooted with Tesla for both stock splits, then their 1 equity share in total has split into 15 shares, hence a ratio of 1:15.

5:1 Ratio: 1 Equity Shares Split To 5 Shares, Taking Total Number Of Shares To 5.

3:1 Ratio: If stayed invested still, then 5 Equity Shares Is Split To 15 Shares After Applying 3:1 Ratio.

Fundamentals Of Tesla Shares: As per Trendlyne data, the following are key positive parameters of Tesla:

- Stock Price rose 50.53% and outperformed its sector by 16.16% in the past year.

- Debt to Equity Ratio of 0.15 is less than 1 and healthy. This implies that its assets are financed mainly through equity.

- Mutual Fund Holding increased by 0.28% in the last quarter to 41.78.

- Interest Coverage Ratio is 64.93, higher than 1.5. This means that it is able to meet its interest payments comfortably with its earnings (EBIT).

- Return on Equity(ROE) for the last financial year was 27.95%, more than 20% in the last financial year, indicating an efficient use of shareholder's capital to generate profit.

- Institutional Holding increased by 0.26% in the last quarter to 46.62.

Should you buy a Tesla? As per Tip Ranks data, based on 34 Wall Street analysts offering 12-month price targets for Tesla in the last 3 months. The average price target is $232.64 with a high forecast of $400.00 and a low forecast of $24.86. The average price target represents a 34.01% change from the last price of $352.56.

If a potential downside is predicted then that could impact Elon Musk's net worth. For now, he is the biggest gainer of 2024 in terms of wealth.