Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) investors received kind words from JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman, who holds the second-most bearish outlook on the electric automaker’s stock. Despite Brinkman commending investors who snapped up shares of Tesla prior to the company’s S&P 500 inclusion, the analyst only boosted his price target by $10, from $80 to $90, even though TSLA shares are trading at around $640.
Brinkman stated that JPMorgan has been confronted with several calls recently from long-only investors who are looking for advice on whether to buy TSLA shares before the S&P 500 inclusion on December 21st. “Investors in the past have expressed to us that they do not understand why Tesla shares are rising as much as they are, but the stock became included in indices against which they are benchmarked,” Brinkman writes in a note to investors. “They opted anyhow to take it to equal weight in their portfolio relative to their benchmark, so as to concentrate on generating alpha in other areas of the market in which they felt have more of an edge. This has proven to be prudent and wise.”
After commending investors for purchasing shares before the S&P 500 inclusion announcement, which boosted shares more than $100 in two days, and over $200 since the announcement, Brinkman then advised investors to “not raise their holdings in Tesla to approximate its weight in the benchmark.”
JPMorgan even boosted its price target from $80 to $90 in response to the company’s continuing surge on Wall Street, but Brinkman isn’t completely sold on TSLA’s long-term growth. This is evident based on JPMorgan’s price target, which is substantially lower than the company’s current trading price per share.
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“Even as many investors are likely tempted to do the same upon S&P 500 inclusion amidst the shares’ continued meteoric rise,” Brinkman said, writing about the purchase of shares prior to December 21st, “and even as we raise our price target modestly on the back of the firms $5 bn at-the-market offering announced yesterday,” JPMorgan still doesn’t advise buying TSLA shares. “Tesla shares in our view and by virtually every conventional metric [are] not only overvalued, but dramatically so.”
Brinkman holds a 63% success rate and an average return of -3.6%, according to TipRanks. At the time of writing, TSLA shares were trading at $640.00.
Disclaimer: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.
