Musk Bets Tesla Rally Has Legs With $24.9 Million Stock Purchase

(Bloomberg) -- Think the run-up in Tesla Inc. shares is about done? Elon Musk doesn’t seem to think so.

The CEO shelled out $24.9 million to buy 72,500 more shares on Tuesday, according to a regulatory filing. The purchase followed a roughly 13 percent jump for the stock since its chief executive bought $9.85 million worth of shares on May 7.

Tesla rallied after Musk, 46, struck a confident tone with investors during the electric-car maker’s annual meeting last week. He said the company was “quite likely” to build 5,000 Model 3 sedans a week by the end of this month and reaffirmed forecasts that Tesla would generate profit and cash in the third and fourth quarters.

As part of Tesla’s drive toward long-elusive profitability, Musk announced Tuesday that the company will dismiss about 9 percent of employees. The across-the-board cutbacks almost entirely involve salaried workers at Tesla’s Palo Alto, California, headquarters and beyond.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dana Hull in San Francisco at dhull12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Jamie Butters

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