5 Fastest Growing Auto Stocks in the World

1. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 88   

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) designs, develops, manufactures, leases, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems. In late August, the firm revealed that it had produced more than 3 million units on a global scale, 1 million of which were manufactured in China. The company has found that production, delivery and acquisition of parts is a lot simpler with three Gigafactories on three different continents making their own lithium-ion batteries. 

On December 20, Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally maintained an In-Line rating on Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock and lowered the price target to $200 from $300, noting that Tesla has a leading EV gross margin advantage but it is impossible to ignore that the investors are already well aware of EV benefits but now must also battle test demand assumptions for ’23-25.  

At the end of the third quarter of 2022, 88 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $7.4 billion in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), compared to 73 in the preceding quarter worth $7.2 billion.  

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Baron Funds, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“In 2014, before we began to invest in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), I called Roger to ask whether he thought Elon Musk’s electric car business would succeed. I did not believe that Roger, an owner of dealerships that sell cars powered by internal combustion engines (ICE) would likely have a favorable opinion of Tesla’s prospects. That was principally for two reasons:

First, automobile manufacturing and distribution is unusually complicated, capital intensive, and highly regulated, which makes profitability problematic; second, cars with ICE motors require extensive annual maintenance, and dealer services revenues, not profits from automobile sales, are the most important contributor to profits of perpetual licensed ICE car dealerships.

Penske Automotive Group is principally an ICE car dealer. Since electric cars are powered by batteries and need little service, franchised dealerships are incented to sell ICE, not EV automobiles. Further, Roger had been a long-term director of General Motors. General Motors’ ICE automobile business would be disrupted if Tesla were successful. (click here to read more…)

You can also take a peek at 12 Countries That Produce The Best Cosmetics and Top 15 3D Companies in the World.