If you had bought Tesla stock right after the company’s 2010 IPO, you’d be sitting on a massive return, more than 1,000%.
But just because Tesla, now with a market capitalization of about $60 billion and a share price hovering around $350, has rewarded investors, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a wide range of opinion about what CEO Elon Musk’s 14-year-old company should be worth.
Tesla bears and Tesla short-sellers have been pulverized over the carmaker’s publicly traded history. But their argument hasn’t lost its validity: Tesla, who has rarely posted profitable quarters, is currently incinerating cash at a furious rate. It has also struggled to launch its mass-market Model 3 vehicle, and has a balance sheet that’s loaded up with debt following a 2016 merger with SolarCity.