By Esha Dey | Bloomberg
Tesla Inc.’s stock is in a freefall. Its sales are plunging around the world. Even its most avid Wall Street bulls are turning cautious. But one group is buying the electric-vehicle maker’s shares like never before: CEO Elon Musk’s fans.
The company has always had a strong fan-base among individual investors, who hang on Musk’s every word on X, the social-media platform he owns. They analyze Tesla in great detail in online forums, and largely function as a hype crew for the stock.
But their current level of enthusiasm is staggeringly high, even by recent historical standards. Individual investors have been net buyers of Tesla shares for 13 straight sessions through Thursday, pumping $8 billion into the stock, retail trading data from JPMorgan Chase’s global equity derivatives strategist Emma Wu shows. That’s the biggest inflow over any buying streak since 2015, which is as far back as the data goes.
What makes the buying notable is Tesla’s share price has sunk 17% over this time, wiping out more than $155 billion from its market value.
“Tesla made some rookie to mid-stage public market investors extremely wealthy, a lot of people became millionaires because of this stock,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder at DataTrek Research. “People don’t forget that. And they will come back to a stock again and again if they feel it has been beaten up.”
Tesla shares have been on a steep slide since mid-December when it touched an all-time high fueled by optimism from Donald Trump’s election victory. But that euphoria vanished, with the stock retreating more than 50% from its Dec. 17 record, making it the second biggest decliner in the S&P 500 Index this year. The rout has been so brutal that on Thursday Musk sought to reassure Tesla employees during an all-hands meeting, telling them to “hang on to your stock.”
What’s become clear is what Wall Street thought was a bonus for the company, Musk’s prominent role in the Trump administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has become an albatross. His growing political presence and involvement with controversies in Europe have triggered a backlash against the company and its leader, with the cars increasingly seen as political symbols. Protesters have thrown Molotov cocktails at Tesla showrooms, and vandalized charging stations.
The impact is showing up in the company’s financials. Sales of the Tesla’s cars have sunk in key European markets, such as France and Germany, as well as in China and Australia. The US numbers won’t be available until the company reports its first-quarter delivery figures early next month, but analysts across Wall Street have been aggressively cutting their estimates for sales and profits, citing the bleak data from around the globe.
On Thursday, long-time Tesla bull and Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas lowered his price target on the stock and reduced his sales expectations for the company citing growing competition, an aging vehicle lineup and a “buyers’ strike from negative brand sentiment.” However, he kept his buy-equivalent rating on the shares, saying the weak near-term expectations are “not particularly narrative changing” for a company whose future depends on robotics and artificial intelligence.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives on Friday lauded Musk’s efforts for “hand holding” employees and investors at a key time, and said that if the CEO continued to lead on his vision the stock will be on a growth path where 90% of its valuation will be led by autonomous driving technology and robotics. This bullishness explains at least some of retail traders’ continuing enthusiasm for the shares.
“These kind of investors don’t care about valuations at all,” Colas said. “They just believe in the future of the company and Elon Musk’s abilities.”
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