• Tesla has denied a Wall Street Journal report that its board was searching for a replacement for chief executive Elon Musk.
• Shares of Tesla fell as much as 3% overnight on trading platform Robinhood following the news, before paring losses to trade flat in premarket trading.
• Tesla chair Robyn Denholm wrote on the social media platform X that the report was "absolutely false."

Shares of  were flat in premarket trading Thursday after the EV maker denied a Wall Street Journal report that its board was searching for a replacement for chief executive Elon Musk.

The report, , said that Tesla's board members reached out to several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding the company's next CEO. Shares of Tesla fell as much as 3% in overnight trading on trading platform Robinhood following the news, before paring losses.

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm wrote on the social media platform X that the report was "absolutely false."

"Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment firms to initiate a CEO search at the company," she wrote.

"This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published). The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the Board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead."

It comes after a sharp drop in the electric vehicle giant's sales and profits, with its top and bottom lines . Musk has admitted that his could be hurting the automaker's stock price.

The mega-billionaire said on a last week that he plans to spend just a "day or two per week" running the so-called  beginning in May.

Tesla's total revenue slipped 9% year-on-year to hit $19.34 billion in the January-March quarter. This falls short of the $21.11 billion forecast by analysts, LSEG data shows.

Revenue from its automotive segment declined 20% year-on-year to $14 billion, as the company needed to update lines at its four vehicle factories to start making a refreshed version of its popular Model Y SUV. Tesla also attributed the decline to lower average selling prices and sales incentives as a drag on revenue and profit.

Its net income plunged 71% to $409 million, or 12 cents a share, from $1.39 billion or 41 cents a year ago.

Since the start of the year, its shares have plunged over 30%.

— C온라인카지노사이트's Dan Mangan and Laura Kolodny contributed to this report.