Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Electric vehicle leader Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is one of the best-performing stocks of the last five years, up over 1,000%. Among the people who have been bullish on the company for years is Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark Invest, who correctly predicted a Tesla price target years before others joined the bull case.
Wood told Benzinga CEO Jason Raznick that Tesla’s valuation could be much higher, and it should trade more like a high-growth tech stock than an automotive stock.
Watch the full exclusive interview with Wood on the "The Raz Report":
What Happened: Tesla is one of a limited number of companies to hit a $1-trillion market capitalization, a feat that traditional automotive companies like Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) have never achieved.
While it’s well-known for its electric vehicles, Tesla also operates in fields like solar, energy storage, artificial intelligence and is growing its presence in autonomous driving and robotics.
For this reason, Wood said that Tesla should trade like a technology stock and not like traditional automakers, something that analysts and Tesla bears can’t grasp.
“That’s why they’re getting it wrong,” Wood told Benzinga on "The Raz Report."
Autonomous taxi platforms could be “the biggest AI project in the world,” she said.
“Tesla, because of its positioning with AI, it is the only auto company or tech company that has designed its own chip for autonomous driving.”
Wood referenced Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the comparison to Tesla and its decision to make its own chip.
“It has taken a leaf from Apple’s book. Apple redefined the cell phone market by designing a chip that turned the cell phone into a computer.”
Wood told viewers to look at companies like Motorola, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) and BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB) and see where they are today.
"They didn’t define the market correctly, and neither have auto companies."
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What’s Next: Wood said Tesla having its own chips and pushing into autonomous vehicles is important for the company's future valuation.
“This is not an auto play. This is an autonomous taxi platform play with software-as-a-service like margins,” Wood said.
She noted that autonomous has 80%-plus gross margins for Tesla, which is important given its current normalized 20% gross margins.
Tesla remains a top-five holding in the Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK), Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE: ARKW) and Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (BATS: ARKQ).
The electric vehicle manufacturer has a market capitalization of $814 billion, which ranks significantly higher than automotive companies. The market capitalization of Ford and General Motors are around $46 billion each. Toyota Motors (NYSE: TM) has a market capitalization of $226 billion.
Tesla also trades with higher price-to-sales and price-to-earnings multiples to its automotive peers, something Wood said should continue going forward.
Read Next: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Reiterates Continued Dependence On Both Nvidia And Dojo For AI Processing
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Photo: Benzinga, Ark Invest and Shutterstock.
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