A feud with President Trump. Slumping sales. A 34% share-price drop from record highs.
Challenges are piling up for Tesla and the electric-vehicle maker's chief executive, Elon Musk, but the company's legion of individual investors are staying put.
Nick Dolya, a 48-year-old in Winter Park, Fla., says he owns roughly $500,000 worth of Tesla shares and has added to his exposure during this year's selloffs.
His family members are devout fans of the brand's Model Y vehicle: He, his wife and daughter each own the car, and he plans to buy a fourth for his youngest daughter when she turns 16 next year. (Dolya also has a 20-year-old son, but decided not to get him a Model Y because of concerns about the availability of vehicle chargers near his college campus.)
Dolya estimates that he has persuaded 20 friends and acquaintances in recent years to buy a Model Y vehicle.
"I'm not a car junkie, but it's very safe, and I think it's one of the best car experiences. It's kind of like what [the] iPhone was 10 years ago," he said. "I think eventually 50% of cars in the U.S. could be Model Y's."
Although Tesla and Musk are under pressure from both sides of the aisle in Washington and Musk's popularity has suffered, there is no sign that the company's biggest fans are abandoning it.
Tesla shares rose 5% Wednesday even after the carmaker reported that its global vehicle sales fell nearly 14% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, missing analyst estimates.
What happens to Tesla stock isn't only of interest to shareholders. The company's halo in financial markets has allowed Musk to raise billions of dollars for his other ventures, many of which aren't profitable and might not be for years.
While the largest group of investors in Tesla stock are institutional investors such as pension funds and money managers, the company has long been known for its loyal following among individuals, many of whom say they made large sums buying and holding the shares through their ups and downs. Among the "Magnificent Seven" large U.S. tech stocks, Tesla has the largest proportion of investors lumped into "other" in FactSet data, a residual category that excludes insiders and large institutions.
Tesla shares were the most actively traded on a brokerage platform for the five-day trading period ended Monday, with the 236,826 buy orders widely outpacing sales. Traders also stampeded into a fund that offers investors twice the exposure to shares of Tesla, the brokerage's data show.
But many Wall Street analysts warn that Tesla shares are worth less than their lofty price indicates, and that they have little room to climb further. The average 12-month price target for Tesla's stock is $311.12 among 54 analysts covering the stock, according to FactSet.
Garrett Nelson, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, wrote in a note Wednesday that the firm's discounted cash-flow valuation model suggests that Tesla stock's fair value is $258, about 18% below its current level. The firm on Wednesday reiterated its "hold" rating on the stock and 12-month price target of $320.
Tesla is trading at roughly 132 times the company's expected earnings over the past 12 months, above its 10-year historical average of 125.7 times, according to FactSet. Companies in the S&P 500 trade at a P/E ratio of 22.2.
Being a fan of a company that trades at high multiples of its earnings poses risks. But many say they don't mind for now.
"I will be buying every big red day," a user wrote on X. "Once $TSLA reaches $800+, I will become a multi-millionaire. Let's get rich together."
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