Tesla bears are saying that now is the time to short the stock, but skeptical shareholders should stick to selling, according to CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
“If you don’t like Tesla, you should sell it,” the Mad Money host said. “But don’t short it. Shorting Tesla has been a recipe for disaster.”
Ever since CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he had secured funding to take the electric car maker private, the company’s critics have claimed that his time is up, Cramer said. For short-sellers, the valuation of $420 per share seemed outrageously high for a company that they believe is running out of cash.
The short sellers have been encouraged by reports that the SEC is looking into whether or not Musk’s tweet about having secured funding to possibly take Tesla private was truthful. It’s unlikely that his announcement that he is working with Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake to take Tesla private will dissuade them.
But Cramer urges investors to take a deep breath and think about how the law actually works.
“The thing is, the SEC looks into everything,” he said, adding that nobody knows if it is a formal investigation or just an informal inquiry.
No matter the SEC’s actions, Cramer reminded investors that the government can take a long time to take down a CEO. Think of Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of the diagnostics company Theranos, who stayed in her position for five years before the Department of Justice charged her with fraud.
“In short, even if Elon Musk was lying through his teeth, I think he gets away with it, and that’s driving the bears crazy,” Cramer said.
In the end, anyone thinking of shorting Tesla’s stock should remember that Musk’s tweets could still be true. And if that is proven, anyone betting against the stock won’t win.
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