Snap up Tesla shares if Elon Musk's chaotic Twitter takeover drags the stock below $125, a veteran strategist says
- Elon Musk's Twitter saga could make Tesla stock a bargain if it falls to $125, a trading strategist said.
- Tesla has tanked 38% since Musk bought Twitter, which is seen as a distraction for the EV maker's CEO.
Tesla's stock could be headed into "buy the dip" territory, as Elon Musk's antics as Twitter CEO tank the electric carmaker's valuation, according to a veteran trader.
T3 Trading Group's Scott Redler said Tuesday he'd consider buying Tesla if its share price falls to $125 — and that he'd carry on snapping up the stock if it fell further to $110.
"I've been trading Tesla for years," the chief strategist told Fox Business. "It's a momentum name, it was at a high valuation, and Musk lost his halo."
"I think it can get down to $125. That'd be one spot, and then $110," Redler added. "What you want to do is get two spots, so you don't have to be perfect, and make sure to space it out so if things get a little more severe, you can handle the pain."
Tesla shares were up 2.48% at $141.22 in premarket trading Wednesday, after closing 8% lower at $137.80 on Tuesday. From there, they'd have to fall 9% to hit Redler's target level of $125, and lose 20% to reach $110.
Shares of Tesla have slid alongside those of other fast-growing companies in 2022, as investors fretting about recession and Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes looked for safer returns elsewhere. Its stock is down 61% year-to-date.
But Musk's chaotic tenure as owner and CEO of Twitter has weighed on the shares, and Tesla has shed 38% since he bought the social platform for $44 billion on October 27. In comparison, the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market index has fallen 2% over the same period.
Musk has laid off large numbers of Twitter employees, and he has made swift changes to the platform's rules, including on content moderation — spooking many of its advertisers. In recent days, he polled his Twitter followers on whether he should quit as the platform company's CEO, and has pledged to step down as CEO once he has found a suitable replacement.
Shareholders have publicly criticized Musk. Longtime Tesla bull Ross Gerber said Tuesday the company's current share price "reflects the value of having no CEO".
But Musk has blamed the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes — which make savings accounts look more attractive than stocks and chip away at growth companies' future cash flows — for Tesla's underperformance in recent weeks.
"Tesla is executing better than ever!" Musk tweeted last week.
"We don't control the Federal Reserve," he added. "That is the real problem here."