5 Stocks At Risk From Slowing Chinese Economy

3. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 72     

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) markets electric vehicles and clean energy solutions. On August 19, the company announced that it would be opening 48 new Supercharger stations, including 198 Superchargers, in mainland China during the month of July. China is one of the largest EV markets in the world and the firm sold over 28,000 EVs in China in July, a sharp drop from June amid upgrades to the factory in Shanghai. A slowdown in the Chinese economy will impact the sales of EVs in China, hitting Tesla stock. 

On August 26, Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois maintained a Buy rating on Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock with a price target of $350, accounting for the 3:1 stock split in the target from the previous $1,050. 

At the end of the second quarter of 2022, 72 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $7.1 billion in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), compared to 80 in the previous quarter worth $11.2 billion.

Here is what Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC has to say about Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:

“To put the demand growth for clean energy materials into perspective, let’s look at Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). At its Battery Day last year, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) projected three terawatt hours of lithium-ion battery capacity needed in 2030 for the EVs and storage they expect to produce. To reach this target, Tesla alone would gobble up approximately 75% of the world’s current nickel production and four times the world’s current lithium production. These numbers are astounding enough, but when one considers that EVs currently represent just 15% of global nickel demand and about 45% of lithium demand and that Tesla will likely be producing only a small proportion of the world’s EVs in 2030, the implications are staggering. Clean energy materials companies will make a lot more money in the decades to come than they ever have both because they will be selling a lot more metric tons of material and because there are certain to be shortages where supply can’t keep up with the rapidly growing demand.”