Shares in the electric vehicle (EV) maker rose more than 2% in premarket despite analyst concerns over its valuation amid slowing sales growth.
Big short investor Michael Burry wrote on social media, “Tesla is ridiculously overvalued,” following the company’s release of consensus estimates for fourth-quarter vehicle sales, which fell short of investor expectations.
Tesla compiled forecasts from several sell-side analysts, with a broad consensus of 422,850 units for the quarter, down 14.93% from the previous quarter and 15% from the same period last year.
The company is now expected to report its second consecutive decline in annual vehicle sales, with average estimates at 1,640,752 units, down 8.8% from just under 1.8 million global deliveries in 2024.
Despite the slowdown, Tesla remains the world’s most valuable automaker, with a market capitalisation of $1.53 tn and trading at 204 times forward earnings, far above the industry average price-to-earnings ratio of 17.47.
Burry, who became famous for betting against the housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, has repeatedly criticised Tesla’s valuation in recent weeks. In his newsletter earlier this month, he highlighted CEO Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package, warning it could lead to stock dilution. He said the company dilutes shareholders by 3.6% annually without offsetting stock buybacks.
“As an aside, the Elon cult was all-in on electric cars until competition showed up, then all-in on autonomous driving until competition showed up, and now is all-in on robots – until competition shows up,” Burry said. He added that he does not currently hold a short position against Tesla.