Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, spoke at the Atreju political convention, organized by the Brothers of Italy in Rome, Italy, on December 15, 2023. Antonio Masiello of Getty Images captured the event in images.
Per Lekander, a hedge fund manager who has been shorting Tesla’s stock since 2020, expressed concerns about Tesla’s future to CNBC. He suggested that Tesla could “go bust” and that its stock price could plummet to $14. He made these remarks following Tesla’s below-expected vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2023, which totalled 386,810 units. In an earlier interview with CNBC in March 2021, Lekander predicted Tesla’s stock would tumble, which it did, from $233.94 to $166.63.
Lekander further expanded on his pessimistic perspective, suggesting that Tesla’s full-year earnings per share for the year might be $1.40 and claiming that Tesla should be valued at 10 times this result.
On the contrary, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest expressed confidence in Tesla, purchasing stock for some of her funds ahead of the Q1 delivery numbers. Moreover, Tom Narayan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets emphasized the long-term potential of Tesla and remarked that several issues causing the fall in Q1 deliveries were temporary.
Despite the diverging points of view, uncertainty seems to veil the future of Tesla, posing significant questions about its sustainability and worth.
Per Lekander, a hedge fund manager who has been shorting Tesla’s stock since 2020, said that Tesla could “go bust” and its stock could fall to $14. His statement follows Tesla’s first-quarter reports which showed disappointing numbers of 386,810 vehicle deliveries, significantly lower than market estimates. Consequently, Lekander believes this is the beginning of the end of the Tesla bubble, suggesting it is perhaps the biggest in modern stock market history.
As a former portfolio manager at Lansdowne Partners, Lekander successfully anticipated a rally in carbon prices in 2018. His company, Clean Energy Transition, has been shorting Tesla’s stock since 2020, signifying that it will profit if the automaker’s shares fall. Furthermore, Lekander suggests that Tesla is a “no growth” stock, putting forward the claim that the full-year earnings per share for Tesla this year would be $1.40.
Richard Windsor, founder of Radio Free Mobile, questioned Tesla’s nearly $500 billion valuation, calling it “ludicrous” in the face of rising competition. “There is still plenty of downside in Tesla’s shares,” Windsor said.
On the other hand, notably bullish on Tesla is Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, who expressed concern over Tesla’s recent delivery numbers, calling it “an unmitigated disaster”. Analysts at HSBC and TD Cowen also cut their price targets on Tesla’s stock.
Despite this, not all are pessimistic regarding Tesla’s future. Tesla stock recently received support in the form of a purchase by Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest. Tom Narayan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, believes most of Tesla’s first-quarter delivery problems are “one-time” occurrences, such as supply chain disruptions, and remarked on the near-term catalyst being a recent directive from Tesla’s CEO for customers to be shown how to use their latest version of FSD (Full Self-Driving).
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