What Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Investor Thinks About Model 3’s Potential?

Tesla’s current business model that involves selling its vehicles directly to consumers through its stores and online should not be construed as an obstacle for the company to reach its delivery targets, Cupps considers. The company “will work hard to level the playing field” and to be able to go directly to consumers in all US states (it currently can sell in around 20 states).

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Among the funds in our database, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) doesn’t seem to enjoy a lot of support with just 29 funds holding some 2.70% of the company heading into 2016. The largest shareholder is Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management, which owns 1.0 million shares. Another investor that likes Tesla is Al Gore of Generation Investment Management, who invested his own money in the company. At the New York Times’ DealBook Conference last year, Al Gore praised Tesla’s Superwall and Gigafactory projects (see more details here). On the other hand, notorious short-seller Jim Chanos of Kynikos said that Tesla’s stock was overvalued and that the company faced serious problems with its scale, which would make it difficult for the company to transition towards an automotive company (see article).

Aside from Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), the fund holds several other popular names, including Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), in which it reported ownership of 23,135 as of the end of 2015, down by 11% on the quarter. Amazon is another long-term investment of Cupps. In a Forbes article in 2014, Cupps was quoted as saying that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the “most-advantaged Internet retailer”. The investor added that the market was waiting for Amazon to slow the investment in its business and start turning to a profit. The online retailer last year surprised investors when it posted a profit of $0.19 per share for the second quarter, versus expectations of a $0.14 loss. This helped Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock to become one of the most profitable last year.

However, Cupps’ largest position is in healthcare stock ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD). The fund disclosed holding 277,761 shares of the company engaged in production of temporary percutaneous mechanical circulatory support devices for heart failure patients. Cupps owns shares of ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD) since the third quarter of 2014 and has seen the stock surge nearly threefold.

Disclosure: none