Investor's Corner
Tesla stock stays resilient amid NYT’s TSLA short-seller-centered piece, Lucid Motors’ $1B Saudi-backed funding
Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) is showing its resilience as it heads towards the final two weeks of September, despite the company being on the receiving end of yet another short-seller-centered piece from a major news outlet, and fellow EV-maker Lucid Motors gaining $1 billion worth of funding from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Just a couple of weeks after Reuters published an article at the end of August celebrating the work being done by a number of Tesla short-sellers, The New York Times has now published a TSLA short-seller-centered article of its own. The piece, which was posted on Monday, featured some of Tesla’s staunchest critics, including George Noble of Noble Capital Investors, Gabe Hoffman or Accipiter Capital, and Mark B. Spiegel of Stanphyl Capital.
The article outlined the thesis of the company’s short-sellers, including arguments about TSLA stock being overvalued, the company’s “cash burn,” and Elon Musk not being “mentally fit” to lead the company. The piece also discussed the emerging bear thesis questioning the demand for Tesla’s vehicles like the Model 3, due to sightings of cars being stored in areas like the Burbank Airport.
“That’s inventory. Everything they produce is supposed to be delivered or in transit on the way to the customer. If there’s nothing wrong with demand, why are there all these cars in Burbank? Something doesn’t add up,” Hoffman said.
The Burbank Airport is known as an overflow lot for Tesla’s vehicles, where cars are stored while they wait for delivery. When the publication asked if Tesla could address the doubts raised about inventory, company spokesman Dave Arnold sent back a statement to the NYT reading a simple message — “We will get back to you shortly.”
This Monday, future Tesla rival Lucid Motors also received $1 billion worth of funding from Saudi Arabia’s Investment Fund, the same fund that bought a 5% stake in Tesla earlier this year, and the same fund which formed a good part of Elon Musk’s now-infamous “funding secured” tweet. The $1 billion investment is set to finance the electric car startup as it aims to get its first vehicle, the Lucid Air, ready for a commercial launch in 2020.
The deal is a notable win for Lucid Motors, which has, for the past year, struggled to secure funding that would allow it to start making its vehicles. Under its agreement with the Saudi fund, Lucid is expected to use the funding to complete the engineering development and testing of the Lucid Air, build its factory in Casa Grande, AZ, and start the global rollout of its retail strategy beginning in North America. The funding is also expected to help the company start the production of the Air.
Lucid Motors chief technology officer Peter Rawlinson, who used to be an executive at Tesla, noted in a statement to The Verge that the company would be aiming to push the electric car industry forward.
“The convergence of new technologies is reshaping the automobile, but the benefits have yet to be truly realized. This is inhibiting the pace at which sustainable mobility and energy are adopted. At Lucid, we will demonstrate the full potential of the electric connected vehicle in order to push the industry forward,” he said.
As of writing, Tesla stock is trading up 1.19 at $298.57 per share.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
Tesla bear Michael Burry got blunt with his beliefs over the company’s valuation, which he called “ridiculously overvalued” in a newsletter to subscribers this past weekend.
“Tesla’s market capitalization is ridiculously overvalued today and has been for a good long time,” Burry, who was the inspiration for the movie The Big Short, and was portrayed by Christian Bale.
Burry went on to say, “As an aside, the Elon cult was all-in on electric cars until competition showed up, then all-in on autonomous driving until competition showed up, and now is all-in on robots — until competition shows up.”
Tesla bear Michael Burry ditches bet against $TSLA, says ‘media inflated’ the situation
For a long time, Burry has been skeptical of Tesla, its stock, and its CEO, Elon Musk, even placing a $530 million bet against shares several years ago. Eventually, Burry’s short position extended to other supporters of the company, including ARK Invest.
Tesla has long drawn skepticism from investors and more traditional analysts, who believe its valuation is overblown. However, the company is not traded as a traditional stock, something that other Wall Street firms have recognized.
While many believe the company has some serious pull as an automaker, an identity that helped it reach the valuation it has, Tesla has more than transformed into a robotics, AI, and self-driving play, pulling itself into the realm of some of the most recognizable stocks in tech.
Burry’s Scion Asset Management has put its money where its mouth is against Tesla stock on several occasions, but the firm has not yielded positive results, as shares have increased in value since 2020 by over 115 percent. The firm closed in May.
In 2020, it launched its short position, but by October 2021, it had ditched that position.
Tesla has had a tumultuous year on Wall Street, dipping significantly to around the $220 mark at one point. However, it rebounded significantly in September, climbing back up to the $400 region, as it currently trades at around $430.
It closed at $430.14 on Monday.
Investor's Corner
Mizuho keeps Tesla (TSLA) “Outperform” rating but lowers price target
As per the Mizuho analyst, upcoming changes to EV incentives in the U.S. and China could affect Tesla’s unit growth more than previously expected.
Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh lowered Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) price target to $475 from $485, citing potential 2026 EV subsidy cuts in the U.S. and China that could pressure deliveries. The firm maintained its Outperform rating for the electric vehicle maker, however.
As per the Mizuho analyst, upcoming changes to EV incentives in the U.S. and China could affect Tesla’s unit growth more than previously expected. The U.S. accounted for roughly 37% of Tesla’s third-quarter 2025 sales, while China represented about 34%, making both markets highly sensitive to policy shifts. Potential 50% cuts to Chinese subsidies and reduced U.S. incentives affected the firm’s outlook.
With those pressures factored in, the firm now expects Tesla to deliver 1.75 million vehicles in 2026 and 2 million in 2027, slightly below consensus estimates of 1.82 million and 2.15 million, respectively. The analyst was cautiously optimistic, as near-term pressure from subsidies is there, but the company’s long-term tech roadmap remains very compelling.
Despite the revised target, Mizuho remained optimistic on Tesla’s long-term technology roadmap. The firm highlighted three major growth drivers into 2027: the broader adoption of Full Self-Driving V14, the expansion of Tesla’s Robotaxi service, and the commercialization of Optimus, the company’s humanoid robot.
“We are lowering TSLA Ests/PT to $475 with Potential BEV headwinds in 2026E. We believe into 2026E, US (~37% of TSLA 3Q25 sales) EV subsidy cuts and China (34% of TSLA 3Q25 sales) potential 50% EV subsidy cuts could be a headwind to EV deliveries.
“We are now estimating TSLA deliveries for 2026/27E at 1.75M/2.00M (slightly below cons. 1.82M/2.15M). We see some LT drivers with FSD v14 adoption for autonomous, robotaxi launches, and humanoid robots into 2027 driving strength,” the analyst noted.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) has landed an elusive “must own” status from Wall Street firm Melius, according to a new note released early this week.
Analyst Rob Wertheimer said Tesla will lead the charge in world-changing tech, given the company’s focus on self-driving, autonomy, and Robotaxi. In a note to investors, Wertheimer said “the world is about to change, dramatically,” because of the advent of self-driving cars.
He looks at the industry and sees many potential players, but the firm says there will only be one true winner:
“Our point is not that Tesla is at risk, it’s that everybody else is.”
The major argument is that autonomy is nearing a tipping point where years of chipping away at the software and data needed to develop a sound, safe, and effective form of autonomous driving technology turn into an avalanche of progress.
Wertheimer believes autonomy is a $7 trillion sector,” and in the coming years, investors will see “hundreds of billions in value shift to Tesla.”
A lot of the major growth has to do with the all-too-common “butts in seats” strategy, as Wertheimer believes that only a fraction of people in the United States have ridden in a self-driving car. In Tesla’s regard, only “tens of thousands” have tried Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving (Supervised) version, which is v14.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2 – Full Review, the Good and the Bad
When it reaches a widespread rollout and more people are able to experience Tesla Full Self-Driving v14, he believes “it will shock most people.”
Citing things like Tesla’s massive data pool from its vehicles, as well as its shift to end-to-end neural nets in 2021 and 2022, as well as the upcoming AI5 chip, which will be put into a handful of vehicles next year, but will reach a wider rollout in 2027, Melius believes many investors are not aware of the pace of advancement in self-driving.
Tesla’s lead in its self-driving efforts is expanding, Wertheimer says. The company is making strategic choices on everything from hardware to software, manufacturing, and overall vehicle design. He says Tesla has left legacy automakers struggling to keep pace as they still rely on outdated architectures and fragmented supplier systems.
Tesla shares are up over 6 percent at 10:40 a.m. on the East Coast, trading at around $416.
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