Elon Musk calls Tesla's stock overvalued; shares drop
Tesla's (TSLA) stock is up nearly 50 percent this year and apparently even its outspoken CEO Elon Musk thinks that is too far.
"I've gone on the record several times that the stock price is higher than we have the right to deserve and that's for sure true based on where we are today," Musk told Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval at the National Governors Association summer meeting on Saturday.
Musk added the company's stock price reflects a "lot of optimism" and that he has tried to taper expectations, but has found that "quite tough" when euphoria is running this high.
Investors on Monday started to heed Musk's advice. The shares were down by 3 percent at midday. Separate from Musk's comments, a Tesla overturned in a central Minnesota marsh on Saturday, according to a report in the StarTribune. The driver blames the car's "Autopilot" feature, telling authorities that his Tesla had a burst of acceleration and rolled off the road.
For Tesla's stock, it hasn't been all rosy this year, in fact, the company just went through a bear market. After hitting an all-time high in late June, the shares slid 20 percent through the July 6 close, as concerns mounted about weakening sales results and greater competition. During the first week of July, multiple Wall Street firms — including Goldman Sachs, Bernstein, KeyBanc Capital and Cowen — expressed disappointment over Tesla's second-quarter delivery results in notes to clients.
Goldman analyst David Tamberrino cited how Tesla's second-quarter deliveries number released that Monday of approximately 22,000 cars missed his forecast of 23,500 and the Wall Street consensus of 24,200.
Investors were also concerned when Tesla did not include in-transit data in its initial second-quarter vehicle production report. After the automaker received a deluge of questions, Tesla updated its report on July 7 and clarified that it would include in-transit information for all quarters moving forward.
Nonetheless, the stock is still up 3 percent from that low earlier this month and up 48 percent for 2017.
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Correction: Tesla's second-quarter deliveries number was released Monday, July 3. An earlier version misstated the day.
