Tesla Inc. shares are bucking broader market weakness on Tuesday ahead of the EV maker’s shareholder meeting later in the day.
The meeting starts at 4 p.m. Eastern and will be webcast.
Tesla shares
TSLA,
have been outperforming the S&P 500 index
SPX,
this month, up 2% so far, and gaining by an even larger margin in the year to date. The stock is up 36% compared with the S&P 500’s 7% gains.
Tesla’s board independence will be a big theme at the shareholders meeting, webcast from the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas.
Tesla has nominated JB Straubel, former chief technology officer, to replace independent director Hiromichi Mizuno, who is not seeking re-election.
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Straubel left the company in 2019. He would join Kimbal Musk, Chief Executive Elon Musk’s brother, Ira Ehrenpreis and James Murdoch as board directors who have ties to CEO Musk.
A group of shareholders last month urged investors to vote against the nomination, saying that Tesla’s board already lacks independence and has been unable to rein in Musk.
The meeting also comes as Tesla has tweaked its EV prices once more and concerns about demand have been front and center for investors.
In a call with analysts following Tesla’s first-quarter results earlier in May, Musk said that the company’s view is “to keep making as many cars as we can,” adding that it was “a good time to increase our lead further.”
Any succession plans are also high on the list. Musk is fresh from hiring a new chief executive for Twitter Inc., saying last week that former NBCUniversal ad executive Linda Yaccarino will take the reins at his social-media company.
Tesla shares got a boost at the time, albeit short-lived, since investors have long worried that Musk was stretched thin between leading Twitter, Tesla, Space X and other ventures.
