Jim Cramer October Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks to Buy and Sell

4. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 85

Talking about Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and the robotaxi event in a latest program on CNBC, Cramer called the upcoming vehicles “huge.”

“The robo-taxi is significant because it’s gaining traction in many different cities. When that happens, I think people will realize it’s much cheaper than Uber. So, if you’re willing to take the plunge, you can save 30% on Uber if you take Waymo,” Cramer said.

However, many believe Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) won’t be able to live up to the hype around its robo taxi plans. Each robo taxi is expected to have a price target of around $150K to $200K, with some estimates suggesting Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) would need about $35 billion to develop a global fleet of such cars. Amid inflation and lack of preference for electric cars, American families will probably stay away from spending a fortune on robo taxis, which could cause a blow to Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) plans in the future.

ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy stated the following regarding Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:

“The strength in the stock market adds significantly to that enormous transfer of wealth, which one could argue is good for shareholders. But is it causal? That is, did the stock market do well because CEOs got large stock grants? Are the CEOs just the lucky recipients of a windfall when the market goes up and their employees perform well? Or do they require huge grants to do their jobs that no one else could possibly do as effectively?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), and most of its shareholders, certainly think the latter is true. In 2018, Tesla’s board of directors crafted a pay package for CEO Elon Musk that would award him 12 tranches of 10-year, fixed-price options on 1% of company stock for every $50 billion in market cap the stock added. In total, the options would be for 304 million shares of the company at $23.34 a share. He would receive no other compensation, until or unless the board decided otherwise. Shareholders approved that pay package, and the stock added all that market cap and more, giving Musk the right to buy 10% of the company for $50 billion less than it was worth, adding to his existing 13% stake. Minority shareholders sued, and a court sided with them and expunged the package in January 2024. “The process leading to the approval of Musk’s compensation plan was deeply flawed,” ruled Judge Kathaleen McCormik of the Delaware Court of Chancery as part of a 200-page decision. It seemed like a long-awaited check on excessive compensation to one individual for the achievements of an entire company….” (Click here to read the full article)