Following Tesla’s (TSLA) acquisition offer to SolarCity (SCTY) last week, the automaker’s stock price fell sharply, but while the market tumbled after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union the next day, the stocks of both companies outperform the market – indicating some resistance.
Now we learn that Wall Street is betting big against the companies as short interest is close to all time high and short sellers are out of shares to borrow. expand full story
The last time Elon Musk commented on the short interest on Tesla’s stock, he warned that anyone holding a stock position against the company will have a “tsunami of hurt” coming for them. During the 12 following months, Tesla’s stock price increased by 461%, a lot of which was attributed to a short squeeze after Tesla reported its first quarterly profit in Q1 2013.
Today as short interest on Tesla is close to an all-time high, Musk commented on it again. Though he was more cautious in his choice of words than last time – so maybe not a tsunami 2.0. expand full story
Tesla’s stock price is up almost 2% in pre-market trading this morning following a new note and “Outperform” rating from Baird financial analyst Ben Kallo. The analyst upgraded his rating on the automaker and increased his price target from $230 to $300 – the stock currently trades at ~$210.
Kallo recently visited Tesla’s factory in Fremont and in a note sent to clients, he commented:
“We believe investor skepticism has significantly increased since we downgraded TSLA on Oct. 6, and although we were concerned about the rate of Model X deliveries, recent data points show production is accelerating, which should drive deliveries and margin expansion throughout 2016. Additionally, we believe TSLA is ahead of expectations on reducing battery costs, and continues to have a significant lead on competing EVs. We would be buyers at current levels.”
The stock market is currently heavily betting against Tesla ahead of the upcoming Model 3 unveiling later this month. The percentage of short interest on Tesla’s stock hit an all-time high of 27% this week despite the recent significant price per share decrease earlier in the year. expand full story
Tesla’s stock price had quite the morning. The stock opened 4% down after notorious Tesla “bull” and Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas published a negative note reducing his target price by 25%, but minutes later the stock went green and up 3% on high volume.
Overall Tesla’s stock is down 17% since the beginning of the year. With the fourth quarter financial results coming (Feb 10), let’s take a moment to talk about the stock. expand full story
According to Nasdaq’s latest short interest update, the total short position on Tesla’s stock increased to 27,367,931 shares – its highest since March 2014. The short position is almost as important as Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s own stake in the company: 28,371,342 shares or about 29% of the float.