For those of you that missed it, Tesla’s (TSLA) shares dropped 15% last week after reporting earnings. That promoted Barron’s Bill Alpert to revisit his bearish story on Tesla. And he’s wiling to give credit where credit is due. He writes:
The growth reported last week by Tesla Motors was impressive for a car company, let alone an American car maker still in its first year of volume production.
Tesla delivered 5,500 units of its sleek, all-electric Model S in the September quarter, producing revenues of $431 million—more than eight laps ahead of the $50 million achieved a year ago. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company reported profits of $16 million, or 12 cents a share (if you set aside 40 cents worth of non-cash charges and lease accounting required by generally-accepted accounting principles).
But don’t think Alpert has suddenly morphed into a Tesla bull. Tesla’s $16.75 billion stock-market value, or 162-times the annualized free cash flow realized in the September quarter, is still higher than he’s willing to pay, even as he acknowledges that Tesla’s shares have gained more than 35% since his call.
Tesla’s shares have gained 4.7% to $144.43 today at 1:51 p.m., which is what they tend to do when Barron’s writes about the company. General Motors (GM) has gained 0.8% to $36.95, Ford Motor (F) is little changed at $%16.84 and Toyota Motor (TM) has dropped 0.5% to $126.78.
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