Could the same be said with AMZN 15 years ago? I knew a very smart CPA, who went through the AMZON financial statements, releases, etc, and said AMZN used fuzzy accounting, everything it reported violated generally accepted accounting rules, etc. AMZN lost money every year, yet their stock was rocking.
This very smart CPA missed what AMZN was doing "big picture". He also missed that AMZN through stock sales and bond sales, could and did get funding for next to nothing. All the while the Sears, Macys, etc were either going BK or simply having a stagnate stock price. Although I get pounded for posting this- I do not believe TSLA is a traditional vehicle manufacturer. Just as AMZN is/was not a typical retailer. TSLA is a tech company, using EVs to introduce its tech and related businesses.
TSLA will be generating revenues down the road in licensing fees, royalties, and subscriptions. That is their "secret" model, but we struggle to get past what comes out of their US, China, and German factories. Just like the struggle to see past AMZN as a online book seller.
Disclosure- I don't on any stocks and don't ever plan on owning any stocks.
You could say that about any new company.
Key difference here is Amazon was a trailblazer in a whole new business, online retailing, on equal footing with other start ups. You cant compare online retail it was whole new ball game. A car with 4 wheels is not.
But here is the catch I know A LOT of people do not know. Besides the fact that Amazon stock is down around 40% from its high. For two years recently it was up to 155 to 175 and now it's 103. So at what price do you want to pay today?
Amazon retail business to this day doesnt make much profit. Sure sometimes it maybe show profits in the hundreds of millions out of its MASSIVE online revenue and yet at times it loses 400 million in just 3months 2022.
Amazon stock is not about online retailing, its massive profit comes from its Cloud Computing Platforms used by corporations around the world. It seems most people are not aware of this yet the information is all out there in Amazons reporting.
The talk about the "accountant" is silly. It's the same as a friend saying I told you to bet on that horse, you didnt and it won. Almost every successful stock, 1000s of them, started out at nothing and others crashed and burned which many others did in that field.
I always talk in "the present" so at what point now, if Amazon is such a good company did you buy the stock? At 160 and now it's 103? Amazon is a true technology company, making its profits by the cloud computing services it sells to businesses around the globe.
Tesla is a car company, no different than any other car company except this one sells exclusively electric vehicles and brought them into the mainstream. Look at it this way, I know you will get this since you are older.
Through the decades a new blue jean manufacturer would come out with a new style jean, it would be the rage of the marketplace, until the existing blue jean makers started producing the same jeans. That new style jean would become common and that new company just become another hohum jean maker unless they branched out into other products in time before their jeans became worthless or worth the same as everyone else's jeans. But the legacy Wrangler and Levi's are still around.
Tesla is in retail, no different than another dozen+ car companies, Yes they are different, they have no retail dealerships which is a disadvantage. Made a splash with an Electric car (style) and now all the others will be making the same.
So my question would have been, when would you have bought this stock? $10 a share? $50 a share? (which it still was in 2020) $200 a share? $350 a share? or the current $160 a share?
Talking about any stock in the past is fruitless, think how that looks to others. Would have, could have, should have is no different than a gambler saying darn it I would have bet on that horse, or darn it, I should have bought that stock.
The thing is, you can say that about almost any stock on the stock exchange, they all started from nothing. (vast majority)
That is why one can not think about what they should have done but what are you going to do today. At that point, then ask, why is this one company that makes the same product as all the others selling at 50 to 90 times earnings and if things are so great why is the stock down over 50% today?
SO today you are presenting a case for Tesla at $160 a share but why not when it was $105 a share just last year? Or when it was $375 a share one and a half years ago. One has to ask what justifies todays price at $160. If your ok with shrinking profit margins, shrinking market share and every automotive company in the world gearing up, (like blue jeans) to produce the same style car as Tesla who has a non existent network... then its a stock for you.
By the way, Im not saying Amazon or Tesla is a bad company, I am replying to your statement as far as retail sales. Amazon profits comes from AWS (Amazon Web Services) at the present time. Doesn't mean there isnt a future in retail but it shows you how tough retail is, even though its P/E ratio is through the roof.
Tesla at the present time is retail. Their other operations at present time are not large enough to produce anything meaningful to the bottom line. This chart shows North American and international Retail Loses for 2022, profits previous years. But you will notice the MASSIVE profits of its AWS (Amazon Web Services)