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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tesla And Hertz – Whatever Next…

Courtesy of ZeroHedge View original post here.

Authored by Bill Blain via MorningPorridge.com,

“Democracy is absolutely the worst form of government, except for anything else…”

Tesla’s rise into the $1 trillion club is extraordinary – proving that listening to what the momentum crowd is buying, while suspending disbelief and fundamental analysis is one road to success. Hertz is a lesson in seizing the moment – its stock gains and free publicity from its new EV fleet will likely exceed the cost of the cars!

As I write this morning’s Porridge I am going to try and not sound like a bitter and twisted old man….

I suppose today’s lesson today might be: “Don’t over think it.” Every morning I wake up and try to make sense of the market noise to discern the big forces acting on markets, the underlying rationales, what the numbers really mean, the potential arbitrages, and the direction of trade flow. But I wonder if I’m doing it wrong.

It’s not what I think that matters. The only thing that’s important is what the market thinks.

The market is simply a voting machine where suffrage is simply the price of a stock. If the market believes Donald Trump’s sight-unseen social media empire is worth billions, so be it. If the market believes Meme Stocks are worth trillions, so be it. Whatever the market believes.. so be it.

As so many clever economists and traders have spotted before me.. it’s the madness of crowds that matters. Over the last few years understanding Behaviours has proved far more useful than forensic accounting skills when it comes to stock picking.

I make the mistake of calling out the inconsistencies of the “drivers” like Adam Neumann, Cathie Wood, Elon Musk and the Eminence Noirs driving SPACs and funds – rather than understanding what makes them look so attractive, clever, clearsighted and intuitive to so many market participants. Promise most people you are going to make them unfeasibly rich – and they will listen.

I make the schoolboy error of asking.. how?

Life is full of regrets. If we let them define us – we truly would be miserable.

Do I regret dumping Tesla in the wake of the cave-diving comments scandal? I reckoned it was massively overpriced around $70. Ever since I have pontificated why it’s not worth a fraction of even that valuation. I don’t regret selling, but I acknowledge I’ve been wrong about the price. But not because I got the fundamentals wrong – I misread the crowd. Failing to understand the momentum was my failure. I am less wealthy than I could have been.

Tesla is worth a Trillion dollars plus. Elon Musk is the richest guy on the planet. These are facts.

Tesla, remarkably, has become a great auto-company. It makes good cars. It understands the logistics of super-charging networks. It has front-run the switch from ICE to EVs, making them mainstream, leading a massive industrial shift, and forced the rest of the sector to play catch up. It changed the perception of EVs from milk-carts to desirable luxury status symbols. It will successfully open new plants and sell more cars. It’s the number one selling car in Europe this quarter – possibly because no one else can get hold of chips!

Perversely, Tesla’s success demonstrates momentum can take a company to fundamental strength. For much of Tesla’s life, sceptics like myself predicted it would stumble and fall, brought down most-likely by apparently insurmountable production problems, its debt load, or regulation. It didn’t happen. Instead it survived, thrived and has been able to reap the momentum and build a strong balance sheet on the back of its extraordinary stock price gains. It could potentially acquire whole swathes of its rivals and supply chain.

It’s been an extraordinary climb from likely disaster to undeniable success – and the one constant has been the support of dedicated Tesla fans. Frankly, it flabbergasts me just how Elon got away with it… but he did.

At this point you are expecting a But…

But…. What would be the point?

In the mind of the crowd facts like how 10-year old Telsa only just started making profits on selling cars don’t matter. Its consistently made profits for the last 2.25 years – largely from selling regulatory credits. Prior to that… Tesla racked up losses. It has consistently failed to deliver so many promises on deliveries, automation and new models. None of these facts matter.

It’s what the market believes that matters.

So, there is no point looking at Tesla this morning and trying to explain how it’s worth a trillion – a multiple of the much larger and more profitable Toyota. Let’s not wonder  why many analysts reckon its going higher. There is no point trying to fathom why a $4.2bn order from newly out-of-bankruptcy Hertz caused the stock price to ratchet up $110 bln yesterday.

This morning analysts are predicting Tesla stock will go higher, building from the “breakthrough psychological level of $900, right through the key $1200 milestone level, and then the next level is $1500.” There was nary a mention of its PE, fundamentals, margins or such irrelevancies… just that its going higher.

Meanwhile…

The Hertz trade is fascinating – Hertz has generated tremendous publicity for its re-launch, and enough stock upside to pay for the cars! It steals a march on any other hire firm wanting to build a fleet of EVs. Hertz went bust early in the pandemic and sold its whole fleet. But, as signs of economic recovery first appeared it became the perfect recovery play. After a bidding war, it was bought out from bankruptcy and restarted with a clean sheet. It now has its very own army of meme stock proponents. Its stock price has more than doubled to $12 on the OTC market.

The fact car hire firms are vulnerable businesses in a highly competitive market, or there are now literally hundreds of new EV makers, in addition to the incumbent ICE auto-manufacturers – all now competing in the EV space for Tesla’s lunch – doesn’t matter.

For now.

Always bear in mind Blain’s Market Mantra no 1: The Market has but one objective: to inflict the maximum amount of pain on the maximum number of participants.

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