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Tesla boss Elon Musk
Photo: LUCY NICHOLSON / REUTERS
Tesla shares are among the top five performers on the Nasdaq this year, but Tesla investors need good nerves right now.
Since the beginning of the year, the value of the share had at times more than quintupled after a stock split, but the share has come under heavy pressure since the beginning of September.
Profit-taking on the Nasdaq tech exchange, one of
Elon Musk
(49) The capital increase carried out by surprise and the decision by the index provider S&P not to include Tesla in the US S&P 500 index had a negative impact on the stock and temporarily pushed it below the US $ 350 mark from a record high of US $ 500.
In view of the significant price gains previously, this setback was manageable - but after a few days of price weakness speculative investors jump in again and drive the share up again.
On Tuesday, Tesla's paper rose by almost 10 percent in late US trading and is now back at around 450 US dollars.
It is now only around 11 percent below its most recent record high.
Tesla's rapid catch-up also has to do with possible Tesla competitors.
The hybrid truck developer Nikola, for example, is traded as a company that could take market share from Tesla in the lucrative pickup market in the future.
A cooperation between Nikola and General Motors had recently pushed the highly valued share further up.
But on Wednesday, Nikola’s papers came under strong pressure, unlike Tesla: The US Securities and Exchange Commission is apparently taking the hybrid truck developer under the microscope.
The authority wants to examine allegations of the short seller Hindenburg Research, wrote the Bloomberg news agency, citing people familiar with the matter.
Although Nikola has not yet put a single vehicle on the road from his electric pickup "Badger", the news about the SEC investigations was enough to drop the start-up's share by 8 percent and the paper of the great model Tesla pushing up almost 10 percent.
The electromobility market has run hot.
Potential or even self-appointed Tesla hunters are showered with billions of dollars in investor money.
In view of the dizzying valuation of Tesla, some institutional investors are taking profits: Baillie Gifford has so far been the largest shareholder in the electric car manufacturer behind Tesla boss Elon Musk.
At the beginning of September, the second largest Tesla shareholder after Elon Musk, the investment company Baillie Giffort, announced, according to a report by the business agency Bloomberg, that the stake in Tesla had been reduced from 7.67 to 4.25 percent.
This made Tesla a victim of its own success on the stock market: Apparently, Baillie Gifford was forced to take the step because its own investment guidelines set limits to the weight of a single share in the portfolio.
Even the reduced stake is enough for Bailliee Gifford to become the fourth largest shareholder.
Investors apparently assume that Tesla will dominate the electromobility market for the next 2-4 years due to its technological lead.
Tesla is currently worth almost five times as much on the stock exchange as the world's largest car maker Volkswagen and around twice as much as the three German car makers VW, Daimler and BMW combined.
more on the subject
Nikola, Rivian and Canoo: What are the supposed Tesla hunters really good at? By Jonas Rest
"Hindenburg" report causes unrest: Tesla rival Nikola in the sights of the stock exchange regulator
After a test drive with Musk in the ID.3: VW boss Diess - "There is no deal with Tesla in the making"
Tesla pulls everyone away: How Elon Musk is taking advantage of the German carmaker's crisis by Michael Freitag and Jonas Rest
In Germany, too, Elon Musk still has a lot to do after his visit to Germany this week.
The US electric car maker wants to start producing around 500,000 vehicles a year in the new plant in Grünheide from next summer, with around 12,000 jobs planned.
During his brief visit to Germany, Musk also stopped by VW and took VW boss Herbert Diess on a test drive in VW's hopeful ID.3.
In view of the modest acceleration values compared to Tesla, Diess justified himself to Musk: "It is a mainstream car - not a race machine."
The Tesla boss looked very relaxed on the test drive recorded in the video.
la / dpa / Reuters