Investor's Corner
Lucid compared to Tesla, Ferrari as Bank of America initiates coverage
Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is being compared to EV leader Tesla and legendary Italian performance vehicle company Ferrari by Bank of America, which initiated coverage on the electric car company’s stock today. Bank of America’s coverage predicts Lucid stock will jump by 50% in the coming years as the company holds high expectations from analysts.
Lucid, led by CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson, a former Tesla employee, is set to launch its first vehicle, the Air, later this year. After the company became publicly traded earlier in 2021 after a merger with Churchill Capital Corp. IV, analysts have started to break down the company’s potential in an emerging EV market. Bank of America said that the company is undoubtedly a reputable, competitive threat to other companies like Tesla, Rivian, and Ford.
Bank of America said in their note to investors that Lucid’s “innovative technology, attractive product, compelling brand, clean sheet manufacturing approach, and impressive management” are key factors in the company’s quest to become number one in the sector. With notable and experienced executives, a quality product with the Air Dream Edition, and a broad-scale manufacturing plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, Lucid has all the ingredients for success. The question is whether the company can follow through in production as it has plenty of advantages.
The analysts at Bank of America have a bullish view of Lucid based on an EV/sales ratio of around 3.0x and an EV/EBITDA multiple of around 37x for 2025 estimates. Analyst John Murphy said, “These are a premium to TSLA’s early trading multiples and to average multiples from EV OEM SPAC peers, but still a notable discount to TSLA’s recent trading multiples (forward five-year basis), reflecting our view of LCID as one of the most legitimate start-up EV automakers.” The analyst also called Lucid the “Tesla/Ferrari of new automakers” and stated that the company is “one of the most legitimate start-up EV makers.”
Lucid announces Air production preview event in late September
Lucid had its first coverage initiated late last week by CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson. In his note, Nelson said that Lucid has plenty of competitive advantages that spawn from its first-class specs on its forthcoming luxury EV models, strong balance sheet and management team, and brand new factory in Arizona.” Nelson also added that “LCID appears to check all the boxes of an industry newcomer with staying power.” However, CFRA is also aware of the tough road it could encounter based on Tesla’s “formidable competitive moat,” which is likely to slow down their anticipated momentum.
Lucid has a $30 price target from Bank of America’s Murphy. John Murphy is ranked 1,070 out of 7,641 analysts and has a success rate of 62% and an average return of 12.1%, TipRanks says.
Disclosure: Joey Klender is not an LCID Shareholder and has no plans to initiate any positions.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
In a striking revelation that underscores the lucrative crossover between Big Tech and space exploration, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, disclosed a massive $94.1 billion equity stake in SpaceX following the rocket company’s blockbuster initial public offering earlier this year.
The disclosure came in Alphabet’s quarterly filing, marking the first time the long-held private investment has been publicly valued at market prices. Google was an early backer, investing alongside Fidelity in 2015 with roughly $500-900 million at a time when SpaceX was valued around $12 billion.
That bet has delivered extraordinary returns, roughly a hundredfold, transforming a strategic play on satellite internet and launch capabilities into one of Alphabet’s largest assets.
Google, $GOOGL, has said they hold $94 billion in SpaceX, $SPCX, shares after IPO.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 23, 2026
Of the total holding, approximately $80 billion remains subject to short-term post-IPO lockup restrictions, preventing near-term sales. An additional $14.1 billion faces longer-term restrictions, extending into the third quarter of 2027. This structure limits immediate liquidity but protects against market volatility as SpaceX transitions into public trading.
The SpaceX position contributed significantly to gains in Alphabet’s broader investment portfolio, which also includes a major stake in AI leader Anthropic. Combined, these holdings helped drive nearly $100 billion in investment gains during the second quarter, providing a substantial boost to net income amid ongoing AI spending pressures.
Analysts view the disclosure as validation of Alphabet’s venture strategy beyond its core search and cloud businesses. The investment aligns with deeper ties, including reported multi-billion-dollar deals for AI computing capacity on SpaceX infrastructure. As SpaceX advances Starship flights, Starlink expansion, and ambitious Mars goals under Elon Musk, Google’s stake positions it to benefit from the commercialization of space.
For Alphabet, the windfall highlights how patient, forward-looking bets in transformative sectors can yield outsized rewards. While lockups temper short-term impact, the holding cements SpaceX as a cornerstone of Alphabet’s diversified portfolio in an era where aerospace, AI, and connectivity increasingly intersect. Investors will watch closely as restrictions lift and SpaceX’s public performance unfolds.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
