Wall Street analysts loved test driving the new Mustang Mach-E - and say it could be bad news for Tesla investors
- Ford's electric Mustang Mach-E is beginning to hit dealerships.
- So far, the crossover has impressed both media reviewers and Wall Street analysts.
- JPMorgan says the car likely won't eat into Tesla sales, but it could boost Ford's market value if previously hesitant investors are coaxed back to the name.
Ford's Mustang Mach-E impressed media reviewers as it hit showrooms, and now Wall Street analysts are similarly enamored with the new electric vehicle.
A team at JPMorgan recently took the vehicle for a spin, less than a month after Insider's own Matt Debord said the car was one of the most exciting he's ever driven, "and walked away thoroughly impressed."
"Its design is unique and we believe will appeal to many buyers, particularly as relates to its Mustang-esque styling cues, including sinewy sheet metal, trademark tail lights with sequential signaling, and a rakish side profile more emblematic of a sports coupe than a utility vehicle," the team, lead by Ryan Brinkman, said in a note to clients.
"On the road," they continued, "it was fun and exciting to drive."
But the analysts stopped short of making a direct comparison to Tesla's Model Y, seemingly the most direct competitor on the market today.
"We do not aim to argue that one vehicle is necessarily superior to the other (many consumers will continue to prefer the Model Y's greater availability of semi-autonomous driving features and Tesla brand, while others will be attracted to the Mach-E's styling and availability of a $7,500 federal tax credit)," they said.
Rather, the issue for Tesla investors may be simply that Ford's stock has more room to run. Not only has the name been range-bound for some time, falling about 4% last year, compared to Tesla's meteoric - and often puzzling - rise in 2020.
"We see three negative implications for Tesla valuation,"
JPMorgan remains Wall Street's most skeptical shop when it comes to Tesla, pegging the company's value at $105 - or about an eighth of where it was trading Friday.
Another bear, RBC Capital Market's Joseph Spak, threw in the towel on his previous valuation this week, upgrading Tesla to a neutral rating.
"There is no graceful way to put this other than to say we got TSLA's stock completely wrong," RBC said.
And as far as the future of Ford goes, both JPMorgan and RBC think there's plenty of room for the stock - and the Mustang Mach-E - to run.
"While we do not expect Ford to rival Tesla for number of battery electric vehicles sold (although Volkswagen, with a $99 billion cap, may)," JPMorgan said, "we do expect investors to increasingly take seriously its competitiveness in this area."