Tesla Motors Inc. Sees Declining Short Interest In August

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Tesla Motors Inc NASDAQ:TSLA shares saw a larger decline in short interest during the month of August. On Aug. 15, short interest amounted to more than 22.5 million shares, a drop of 6.5% from the July 31 total of approximately 24.1 million. Currently, 24.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Why Tesla shares are rising?

The EV manufacturer’s stock has been hitting new highs, signaling that bearish investors are changing their stance on the company’s shares. Tesla is not a typical car company run by a typical CEO in the usual way. Shares of Tesla trade on the positive sentiment that electric cars will match up with combustion engine cars, along with high hopes for excellent results from charismatic chief executive Elon Musk and expectations of a hike in production of vehicles in the future.

Analyst James Albertine from Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Tesla stock and assigned a $400 price target to the stock. Albertine noted, “Tesla sentiment is like a freight train.” Shares are reaching new heights, and from the perspective of the 50-day moving average, the company has not gone down since June.

Musk said in an interview with Fox Business anchor Liz Claman that playing short on Tesla Motors Inc NASDAQ:TSLA was “crazy” in 2013. The CEO already announced that he will never sell his shares, and in the last quarter, he owned 26.7% of Tesla’s outstanding shares. It is this substantial holding on the stock that offers stability to the company.

Analysts, investors, buyers positive on Tesla

Credit Agricole analyst started coverage on Tesla and has set an Outperform rating on the stock, assigning it a price target of $300 in a research note to investors on Aug. 20. Separately, analysts at Credit Suisse initiated coverage on the stock, assigning an Outperform rating and a price target of $324.93 in a research note to investors on Aug. 13. The company has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $255.82.

Tesla Motors Inc NASDAQ:TSLA is building on investors’ confidence, but not for any unknown reason. Last quarter, the total amount of customer deposits came in at $228 million from pre-orders of the Model S. So if every customer needs to deposit $7,000, it turns out that Tesla has already sold 32,500 Model S sedans. The company is targeting to produce 35,000 vehicles. This deposit is an increase over $163 million at the end of the last year. That’s approximately a 40% increase in just six months. This further gives strength to bullish sentiments.

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