5 Best-Performing S&P 500 Stocks in the Last 10 Years

1. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 72

10-Year Share Price Returns as of September 13: 14,760%

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is the top S&P 500 performers as of September 13, as the stock has gained 14,760% in the last decade. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) announced on September 9 that it is looking to build a lithium refinery on the gulf coast of Texas in an attempt to gain a consistent supply of battery components amid escalating EV demand. 

On September 6, Wolfe Research analyst Rod Lache upgraded Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $360 price target, in line with lifting his 2025 U.S. EV penetration estimate to 20% from 10% and his global EV penetration estimate to 22% from 17.5%. The Inflation Reduction Act “stands out as far and away the most consequential development for the U.S. Auto Industry that we’ve seen in a very long time,” the analyst told investors. He is “incrementally more positive” on Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and is raising his 2023 and 2025 EPS estimates to $7.40 and $16 from $6.12 and $12.70, respectively.

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 72 hedge funds were long Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) at the end of June 2022, compared to 80 funds in the last quarter. Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management is a prominent stakeholder of the company, with 1.4 million shares worth over $1 billion. 

Here is what Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC had to say about Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:

“To put the demand growth for clean energy materials into perspective, let’s look at Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). At its Battery Day last year, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) projected three terawatt hours of lithium-ion battery capacity needed in 2030 for the EVs and storage they expect to produce. To reach this target, Tesla alone would gobble up approximately 75% of the world’s current nickel production and four times the world’s current lithium production. These numbers are astounding enough, but when one considers that EVs currently represent just 15% of global nickel demand and about 45% of lithium demand and that Tesla will likely be producing only a small proportion of the world’s EVs in 2030, the implications are staggering. Clean energy materials companies will make a lot more money in the decades to come than they ever have both because they will be selling a lot more metric tons of material and because there are certain to be shortages where supply can’t keep up with the rapidly growing demand.”

You can also take a look at 10 Best Media Stocks To Buy and 13 Largest Lithium Companies In the World. 

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