Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) recently hit a new milestone since it went public back more than nine years ago. Despite the electric car maker not hitting or exceeding its all-time-high price of $385 per share yet, Tesla’s market cap is already at its biggest to date. As of Wednesday’s opening bell, Tesla’s market cap stood at around $65 billion. That’s bigger than the current market caps of Fiat-Chrysler and Ford combined.
This is particularly impressive considering how tumultuous 2019 has been for Tesla. The electric car maker opened the year fairly strong, but following the release of its first-quarter earnings, TSLA stock experienced a steep dive that took the company’s shares down as low as $176.99, 50.8% less than Tesla’s closing price on Tuesday.
Tesla’s 2019 ultimately changed last month when the company released its Q3 2019 earnings, which beat Wall Street estimates with $6.3 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.91. In contrast, Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet were expecting Tesla to post a loss of $0.46 per share for the third quarter.
These results ultimately started a massive rally that saw the electric car maker mount a comeback that passed the then-elusive $300-mark in one day. Tesla stock has barely slowed down since, allowing the electric car maker to push past GM to become America’s most valuable automaker, and later on, overtake Daimler to take its place as the world’s third-most-valuable carmaker.
Tesla shorts have not had an easy time either, with S3 Partners Managing Director of Predictive Analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky stating that as of Wednesday’s open, shorts are down -$1.33 billion in 2019 mark-to-market losses, and down -$1.34 billion in November 2019 alone. What’s particularly interesting is that despite these blows, Elon Musk’s once-foretold “short burn of the century” has not really started yet.
Since announcing its blowout Q3 results, Tesla has continued on a straight path. Tesla Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai has received its mass-production license and is now only waiting for a final sales permit before local Model 3 deliveries could begin. Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertruck pickup is set to be revealed later this week, and the location of Gigafactory 4 has been confirmed for Germany. Even Tesla Energy, a business that has taken a step back from the limelight amidst the Model 3 ramp, is starting to bounce back, with the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia being expanded by 50%.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
