Tesla Is Down 30% This Year. Here's Why I'm Still Waiting on the Sidelines.
The stock is still priced in a way that leaves very little room for error.
Overview
Even with shares of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) down over 30% this year, I'm still not ready to buy the stumbling stock. It's been a brutal 2026 for Tesla's investors, but the stock is still trading at an incredible premium, with its trailing P/E ratio sitting around 290. Simply put, the company's valuation of more than $1 trillion leaves little to no room for error.
Tesla reported its second-quarter earnings last week, and while revenue and deliveries reached record levels, the electric vehicle company's operating income was slashed by 57% year over year, causing the operating margin to collapse to 1.4%.
Details
Non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share missed analysts' consensus badly, coming in at just $0.33 per share compared to the expected $0.53. Tesla's free cash flow also turned negative as spending on AI, robotics, and autonomous initiatives increased substantially.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.