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Ask HN: Why do you own Tesla stock?

2 points by eloff ↗ HN
Tesla stock is probably the most overvalued stock in the market right now. It's worth more than all the other car companies combined. To grow into that valuation it would need to dominate the entire auto market, plus some others. That means there's a lot of room for the stock to go down, not much for it to go up. I wouldn't bet against Elon Musk, but still I wouldn't buy the stock. If you own Tesla stock, what's your rationale?

8 comments

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ibraheemdev
> It's worth more than all the other car companies combined.

That is the thing. Tesla is not a car company. It is much much more than that.

hourislate
>Tesla is not a car company. It is much much more than that.

What are they doing that makes them so much more? Are they really that different than Toyota,GM,Ford,VW? I'm sure they have some differences but at the end of the day there is no wide moat that any of these other manufacturers can't cross.

They all make vehicles and Tesla certainly got a jump on the others with EV's. With that said, I hope they keep innovating and are super successful and drag the rest of the Industry forward.

linsomniac
Tesla is in the whole EV lifecycle: Electricity generation, delivery, and utilization. Imagine a company a hundred years ago that was a combination of: Ford, Exxon, and Saudi Real Estate. :-)
enonevets
They also own the largest supercharger network, something I'm not aware of any other EV manufacturer coming close to competing against. And they are going to open it up to other cars (according to Elon's tweet).

This puts them on a roadmap to be compared to all gasoline companies.

mkrishnan
I had the similar doubts when valuation passed GM and I regret for that now. you will never know what will happen.
enz
> If you own Tesla stock, what's your rationale?

The rationale is the same as yours, but considering the fact that other people will hype-buy it anyway so the price will climb.

It has nothing (or little) to do with industrial considerations. It's all about Mr. Market.

eloff
The bigger fool theory of investing (speculating).

Eventually the music stops on that and someone is left holding the bag.

linsomniac
My Father In Law gave me this advice: Take a little bit of your investments, something small that you can stand to lose, and put it in a couple companies that you like, just to make the investing a little bit fun.

I did that with Tesla a while ago, I'm not sure I'd invest right now. But I'm also not looking to sell right now.

The reason I picked Tesla is that they are way more than just a car company. They are a renewable energy company at a time when we are at an inflection point in renewable energy. I've been downvoted before for saying that, but I don't see Tesla as a car company and that's why I invested and why I think it's a mistake to compare their valuation to other car companies.

Tesla is involved in: Cars, solar panels, solar generation, a huge charger network, batteries, residential energy systems, and industrial energy systems.

Is it all down-side as OP speculated? Only time will tell, of course, some targets are putting it at market cap halving over the next 5-7 years. The most optimistic are putting it at quadrupling. Most estimates seem to think that there's room to go up.