Analysts aren’t sure what to make of Tesla. A roughly equal number have “buy,” “sell,” and “hold” ratings on shares of the electric-car manufacturer. Yesterday, Goldman Sachs cut its recommendation on the stock to “sell,” amid concerns about cash flow, production delays, and the departure of the company’s CFO after a little over a year in the job.
It has been a rough couple of weeks for Tesla’s stock, which shed more than $2 billion in market value since mid-February. Still, the company is worth far more than it was at the start of the year, to say nothing of its rocket-like growth since listing in 2010—fitting for a company run by Elon Musk, a guy who’s also in charge of a space exploration company.
Musk says his space venture will shuttle customers around the moon in 2018; an equally impressive feat back on Earth may be achieved by then, with Tesla approaching giants like BMW, Ford, GM, and Honda in terms of market value. Tesla, which has yet to deliver more than 100,000 cars in a year, has steadily overtaken many of its rivals in the market-cap rankings—most recently Nissan, earlier this month—even though these manufacturers produce far more vehicles, including electric ones.