short interest

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.
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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. 
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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.”

By manufacturing its batteries at the Gigafactory, Tesla aims to reduce its cost by at least 30%. Its current cost is unknown, but estimates range from $150/kWh to $250/kWh.
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