Tesla Stock Hits New Low, SK Innovation and LG Ensol Decline: Is Seohak Ant the #1 Stock to Buy? Wall Street Predicts Future

The stock price of Tesla, one of the foreign stocks preferred by domestic investors, continues to decline, hitting a new intraday low. Tesla’s stock price weakness is leading to declines in domestic battery-related secondary stocks, deepening investor concerns. On the other hand, some investors are focusing their attention on the recent decline in stock prices as a low buying opportunity.

On the 18th (local time), Tesla’s stock price fell 3.55% on the New York stock market from the previous day, ending trading at $149.93 per share. This is the first time since January 2023 that the company’s stock price has fallen below the $150 level. In early trading, Tesla’s stock price fell to $148.7, setting a new 52-week low.

Tesla’s stock price has fallen nearly 40% this year. Katie Stockton, co-founder of Fairlead Strategy, indicated that there could be further declines, saying, “Now there is another test of $148.”

As the $150 level has broken down, it seems that Korean investors who have been buying Tesla stock every time it falls are also measuring the time of their purchase. This is because the quarterly performance that the company will announce after the New York stock market closes on the 24th is still another variable. Expectations for Tesla’s performance in the first quarter of this year (January to March) are low. According to CBS Detroit, sales of electric vehicles in the US reached 268,000 units in the first quarter of this year, up 2.7% from the previous year. However, this is a noticeable decrease compared to the first quarter of last year (47% increase). In the US auto market, the share of electric vehicle sales in the first quarter of this year was 7.1%, down from the first quarter of last year (7.6%). This suggests that Tesla could suffer from slow sales not only in China, its main market, but also in the United States. Tesla announced earlier this month that global electric vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of this year were around 387,000 units, which is a 9% decrease from last year’s first quarter (423,000 units).

Accordingly, opinions are being raised on Wall Street that one should be careful about buying. Deutsche Bank lowered its investment opinion on Tesla from Buy to Hold and lowered its 12-month target price by about 35% from $189 to $123. The reason Tesla is reticent about announcing its next models, such as the Model 2, is that the electric vehicle market is generally difficult this year due to sluggish demand and competition from low-priced cars from China.

As Tesla shows slow returns, domestic secondary battery-related stocks, heavily influenced by the electric vehicle industry, also show low returns.

LG Energy Solution, known as the top secondary battery stock in KOSPI, fell 9.94% over the past month (March 19 to April 19). LG Energy Solutions has continued to show slow stock price movement this year, with a particularly large drop around the 8th when it announced poor performance in the first quarter. On this day, the company announced provisional earnings of 6.129 trillion won in sales and 157.3 billion won in operating profit, down 23.4% and 53.5% from the same period last year, respectively.

Even on KOSDAQ, the stock price of Ecopro BM continues to decline, falling 15.11% in one month. According to FnGuide, Ecopro BM’s sales in the first quarter of this year was KRW 1.0635 trillion, a 47.12% decrease from the same period last year, and is expected to turn red with an operating loss of KRW 9.7 billion.

At the same time, some domestic investors are attracting attention because they are using the fall in stock prices related to secondary batteries, including Tesla, as an opportunity to buy at low prices.

According to the Korea Securities Depository report on the 19th, a net of domestic investors bought $343.91 million worth (about 476.7 billion won) of Tesla stock in the past month from the 19th of last month to the 18th of this month. Tesla was the main net purchase of foreign stock by Korean investors during this period. In addition, it was found that individual domestic investors responded to stocks with falling stock prices by buying them, such as a net purchase of 246.4 billion gained in the value of LG Energy Solution and 25.9 billion in the value of Ecopro BM from the 19th of last month to the 17th. of this month.

[김인오 기자 / 김대은 기자]