Tesla Nightmare Jolts Elon Musk Fanboys Back to Stock’s Dark Reality
| Source: AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato
By CCN.com: Elon Musk groupies might fantasize about owning robo-taxis that yield a fortune in passive income while they stay home and play video games, but one stock market analyst warns that the “Tesla dream” risks transforming into a bitter nightmare.
Analyst Warns That Elon Musk’s ‘Dream’ Faces a Dark Reality
Boris Schlossberg, managing director at BK Asset Management, told CNBC that TSLA shares are a “very, very speculative” investment now that fanboys (and girls) who drank the Tesla Kool-Aid have finally begun to sober up to the stock’s deafening headwinds.
“I’ve been skeptical of this stock from the $300s and I remain very skeptical,” Schlossberg told the network. “I still think it’s a very, very speculative long at this point, primarily because right now the investors have really stopped buying the Tesla dream and are starting really to focus on the Tesla reality.”
Schlossberg explained that after years of overpromising and underdelivering, Tesla needs to put up or shut up. The firm has thus far failed that test, as demonstrated by its vicious first-quarter earnings miss.
If that pattern repeats following the second quarter, investors could grow disenchanted with Elon Musk, despite the visionary billionaire’s talent for mesmerizing the market.
“That’s where the company has really not been producing as well as I think the market wants to see. They certainly failed in Q1, they’re guiding higher for Q2 and we’ll see if indeed that will be the case, but overall they’re facing execution problems,” said Schlossberg.
Tesla Stock Recoils as Starry-Eyed Investors Sober Up
Already, Tesla stock has plunged nearly 25% in 2019, a collapse that could have been even worse had the overall market not experienced a historic recovery over the same period.
Investors might be tempted to buy the TSLA pullback, but remember that Tesla arguably remains wildly overvalued. At just under $44 billion, the company is purportedly worth $3 billion more than Ford – an automaker with a long tradition of actually turning a profit.
Granted, those profits still derive from the gas-guzzlers that Elon Musk claims will be obsolete within a matter of years, but Ford wisely continues to direct them toward strategic investments in the EV space. Less than two weeks ago, Ford invested $500 million in Rivian, an electric vehicle startup that already boasts financial backing from Amazon.
According to Schlossberg, competitors like Rivian will present Tesla with serious problems, as the company – though an early leader in the EV space – will no longer be the only game in town. He predicted that the stiffest challenge would come from Volkswagen, “which is really going to ramp up its business” and become a “very formidable competitor.”
“I think there’s a lot of problems on the horizon,” he concluded.
Tesla shares fell 0.49 percent to $253.77 on Monday.
