If you’re a small investor in Tesla like I am, seeing your precious stock tumble this week has been quite disheartening. It has led me to wonder if the longevity I always assumed for Tesla shares and my portfolio was misplaced. I had only bought a couple of shares here, a couple of shares there. Was that practice so bad? With Tesla’s volatility over the last year+, now I’ve become baffled. Should I sell? Stay the course and wait it out? Or buy low, sell high, as so many bigger investors do?
The news that Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought up TSLA stock on both Thursday and Friday of last week gave me more proverbial food for thought. And maybe a little hope.
The Run-Up to the Tesla Q4 and FY 2023 Update
Tesla stock had hit its highest point at more than $400 in 2021, and along with that peak came a company valuation above $1 trillion. But it has since plummeted 52%.
In 2023’s third quarter, Tesla’s total revenue increased just 9% year over year to $23 billion. As Trevor Jennewine writes on the Motley Fool, this is a sharp slowdown from 56% growth in the prior-year period, with its non-GAAP net income declining 37% to $2.3 billion.