[뉴욕=뉴스핌] Correspondent Kim Min-jung = Tesla’s stock price sank to its lowest level in the past eight months as Tesla CEO Elon Musk failed to appease investors regarding its performance outlook. Even on Wall Street, voices of concern about Tesla are growing louder.
At 11:53 a.m. Eastern time on the 25th, Tesla’s stock price fell 10.80% from the previous day to $185.39. On this day, Tesla’s stock price hit its lowest point in eight months. As a result, Tesla’s market cap evaporated by $70 billion. This month alone, Tesla’s market value has decreased by $200 billion.
Tesla’s stock price weakness on this day was due to poor performance and pessimistic outlook revealed the previous day. Tesla announced that it recorded sales of $25.17 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 71 cents in the fourth quarter of last year. Previously, Wall Street expected Tesla to achieve sales of $25.6 billion and earnings per share of 74 cents. CEO Musk warned that Tesla’s growth rate will slow significantly as the company focuses on producing entry-level vehicles at its Texas plant in the second half of 2025.
Wall Street and investors are expressing doubts about Tesla’s growth story, saying that CEO Musk did not even provide a specific performance outlook. According to Reuters, at least nine institutions lowered their investment opinions on Tesla, and seven raised them. Currently, Wall Street’s average investment opinion on Tesla is ‘hold’, and the median target price is $225. This is more than 21% higher than the current price.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla.[사진=로이터 뉴스핌] 2024.01.26 mj72284@newspim.com
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a representative Tesla bull, evaluated Tesla’s conference call the previous day as an “accident” and judged that CEO Musk had failed to address investor concerns about Tesla vehicle price cuts. On this day, analyst Ives presented Tesla’s target stock price at $315, 10% lower than the previous price.
“The news for Tesla essentially went from ‘bad’ to ‘worse,’” TD Cowen analysts said in an investment note, noting that fourth-quarter sales and profits also fell short of expectations.
Wall Street is also concerned that Tesla will find it difficult to increase sales without margin deterioration in the increasingly competitive electric vehicle market. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said, “Tesla’s problem is that it has to further reduce operating margins to promote sales due to competition from China’s BYD as well as competition from elsewhere.”
It is analyzed that short sellers have achieved higher returns than Tesla investors since the beginning of the year. According to data analysis company Ortex, Tesla short-selling investors made profits of $3.45 billion this year. This is the highest performance among U.S. stock short selling transactions.
After the stock price surge last year, valuation is also burdensome. According to LSEG (formerly Refinitiv), Tesla’s stock price is currently trading at 60 times 12-month profit estimates.
Experts judged that it would be difficult to justify such a valuation if Tesla’s sales growth and margins continued to weaken. “Tesla is looking more and more like a traditional car company,” said Bernstein analyst Tony Sacconaghi.
mj72284@newspim.com
