As I try to remember how to work a slide rule (dad, what's a slide rule?) to figure the price equivalent on the pre-split stock here is ZeroHedge:
Tesla shares are rocketing to all time highs in the pre-market session this morning on news of Hertz reportedly buying 100,000 of their vehicles, in addition to an upgrade from Morgan Stanley that came over the weekend.
Shares were already bumping higher on the MS upgrade when the Hertz headlines hit the wire around 0730EST, sending shares to the $950 level.
[5-minute bars]
Even though Hertz is just about four months out of bankruptcy, it is implementing an "ambitious" plan to electrify its fleet, beginning with plans to buy 100,000 Teslas, Bloomberg reported Monday morning.
The order marks the "single-largest purchase ever for electric vehicles" and will equate to about $4.2 billion in revenue for Tesla, sources told Bloomberg.
The order will be delivered over the next 14 months and Model 3 vehicles will be available to rent at most Hertz locations starting in November, the report says.
Hertz is also going to be building its own charging infrastructure, in addition to allowing customers to have access to Tesla's Supercharger network.
Hertz is planning on electrifying "almost all" of its half a million cars and trucks worldwide. The order marks about 10% of Tesla's total production capacity for a year and may also prevent competitors from making similar purchases from the automaker.
The plan is "ambitious" enough for people to have doubts right off the bat....
....MUCH MORE
Let's see, take the $953 pre-market top-tick, move this thing to the left, squint to see the line and that's $4765 on the old stock. It came public at $17.
And for just about that entire time we've been saying "Don't short Tesla".
Not because of any deep insight into the technology, though we're better than the average analyst in an autodidactic sort of way, or because we know what's inside Elon Musk's head but rather, because we've been following the stock on the blog since before the IPO and realized, almost out of the gate, that this was a cult stock. And cult stocks can destroy short sellers.
Here's a repost from January 2020 (the FinViz chart is set to update the last twelve months, daily):
I Know We Have A General "Don't Short Tesla" Rule But Man.... (TSLA)
The stock is up $39.86 (+8.34%) at $518.01.
We have a few hundred posts on Tesla, going back to before the IPO including some thoughts* on shorting TSLA.
Some links after the jump.
We've violated the 'Don't short Tesla' rule a half-dozen times and fortunately escaped with tactical profits but the thing is, in bull markets it is just so dangerous to make valuation shorts. Even shorting outright frauds can kill you if you don't have staying power and/or a friendly banker who won't pull your credit lines at the worst possible moment.Today in regular trading, shares of American electric car manufacturer Tesla surged past the $500 mark.Tesla, perhaps the most famous electric vehicle company in the world, has had a tumultuous last 12 months on the public markets. The company’s shares have traded as low as $176.99 in the past 52 weeks, and, as has high as $507.50 today.
The company is worth $507.28 per share at the moment, valuing Tesla at $91.38 billion according to Google Finance. As is often pointed out, Tesla is worth more than Ford and General Motors combined. In a slightly more exotic formulation, Tesla is worth just under 64 times as much as Aston Martin.
What’s going on?
Why is Telsa surging? We presume that it’s not the latest from Musk, that “Teslas will soon talk and make fart noises,” according to CNBC. (At least we hope not.)
Instead, an investor upgrade this morning could be the key reason for the company’s gains today. As IBD points out, the new target from Oppenheimer is over $600 per share.
That’s today’s runup explained. The morning’s rally, however, is tied to the company’s rising growing operations in China and global delivery figures....MUCH MORE
Why We Don't Short Tesla: The stock is up 16% On The Day (TSLA)
April 22, 2013
Tesla Motors Trades At All-Time High (TSLA)
The stock is at $49.75, up 4%, after trading as high as $50.19.August 2015
The thing to remember with all-time highs is there is no overhead supply, no shareholders thinking "As soon as I get to breakeven I'm getting out"....
Short Selling and The Information Embedded In The Cost To Borrow Stock (TSLA)
August 2016
...For the longest time we had a Don't Short Tesla policy because it showed signs of being a cult stock and cult stocks can kill shorts. Plus it can be very hard to locate stock and very expensive to borrow when you do,
Morgan Stanley Gives a $465 Target For Tesla, Stock Jumps 5%...
We've publicly shorted Tesla twice on the blog, both times worked out because nothing like this happened during the holding period.However, after the SolarCity deal and Elon's purchase of SCTY debt (on top of his SpaceX buying SCTY debt) I'm more open to betting against the company, at least tactically if not to zero.
For the most part this April 2013 headline is operative "Why We Don't Short Tesla: The stock is up 16% On The Day (TSLA)". That was at $44.00, up $6.11.
Recently $255.30 up $12.15.
Morgan Stanley was one of the firms that sold the recent half-billion stock offering....
Remember, your mileage may vary, close cover before striking etc.
June 2017
"Einhorn Compares GM to Apple and Explains Why He’s Short Tesla" (TSLA; GM)
...It is just so dangerous to put valuation (as compared to fraud) shorts on in a bull market.Finally, if you do short, don't be this guy (no, seriously, don't be this guy):
We have had a general rule, "Don't short Tesla" virtually since the IPO, that we've violated on three occasions, fortunately profitable but it is tough to tell if it was worth the risk.
