Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to keep up-to-the-second on breaking news in the electric vehicle and clean energy space, as well as which stocks in these sectors that the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.
From the hotly-debated high-flier Tesla, Wall Street's newest darling Rivian, traditional-stalwarts turned EV-upstarts GM and Ford to the numerous SPAC-deal makers that have come public in this red-hot space, The Fly has you covered with "Charged," a weekly recap of the top stories and expert calls in the sector.
LATEST WAVE OF LAYOFFS: Tesla (TSLA) is cutting its total headcount by up to 3.5%, with plans to reduce its salaried workforce by about 10% and add hourly staff numbers in the latest round of layoffs that will occur over the next three months, CEO Elon Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum. "A year from now, I think our headcount will be higher" in salaried and hourly workers, but for now the reduction will be 3% to 3.5%, he said.
Musk also said that supply constraints are the biggest brake on the electric car maker's growth, rather than competition from rival automakers. "Our constraints are much more in raw materials and being able to scale up production," Musk said. He is quoted as having added: "As anyone knows who has tried to order a Tesla, the demand for our cars is extremely high and the wait list is long... This is not intentional and we're increasing production capacity as fast as humanly possible."
EV PRICE INCREASES: Tesla has boosted the prices of all its electric vehicles in the U.S., aside from certain versions, by a range of $1,000-$6,000, Inside EVs' Mark Kane reported. The entry-level version of the Model 3 is still priced at $46,990, but the Long Range AWD price has risen by $2,000 to $57,990, the author said. The Long Range AWD versions of the Model S and Model X have received respective price hikes of $5,000 and $6,000, the author says, noting that the Model Y Range AWD price has jumped $3,000 to $65,990.
General Motors (GM) is also raising the price on its GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV by $6,250 starting June 18 due to increasing commodity costs, reported The Detroit News' Kalea Hall. Existing Hummer EV reservations placed before June 18 will see no increase to the base price, GMC said.
RETURN TO EUROPE: General Motors plans to return to Europe with battery-powered models starting with the Cadillac brand and is considering selling the hulking Hummer electric vehicle, Bloomberg's David Welch, Siddharth Vikram Philip, and Wilfried Eckl-Dorna reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The carmaker may start importing the electric Cadillac Lyriq model, which is already on sale in the US, the people said. GM has recently revived the dormant Hummer brand, starting production of the electric pickup in December, the authors noted.
SALES HALTED: Ford (F) has told dealers to temporarily stop selling electric Mustang Mach-E crossovers due to a potential safety defect that could cause the vehicles to become immobile, CNBC's Michael Wayland reported. According to a notice to dealers, the issue can lead to a malfunction that could cause the vehicle not to start or immediately lose propulsion power while in motion. Potentially affected vehicles include 2021 and 2022 Mach-Es that were built from May 27, 2020, through May 24, 2022, at the automaker's Cuautitlan plant in Mexico.
BUY CHARGEPOINT, BEAM GLOBAL: B. Riley analyst Christopher Souther initiated coverage of ChargePoint (CHPT) with a Buy rating and $20 price target. The analyst likes the company's "dominant" market share, established brand, and growth strategy. ChargePoint has more than a 70% market share in networked Level 2 charging in North America and 5,000 commercial and fleet customers globally, Souther told investors in a research note. He expects the commercial business to drive margins and says ChargePoint has cash for further investments.
The analyst also started coverage of Beam Global (BEEM) with a Buy rating and $23 price target. Beam designs, manufactures, and deploys solar- and storage-powered electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is well suited to "carve out a needed niche in EV charging infrastructure," Souther told investors in a research note. The analyst expects Beam to benefit from the faster deployment times of its off-grid solutions as municipalities, fleets, and other players look to scale up more quickly than red tape or grid availability typically allows.
ON THE SIDELINES: B. Riley analyst Christopher Souther initiated coverage of Blink Charging (BLNK) with a Neutral rating and $15 price target. The analyst sees challenges for Blink and its preferred Blink-owned model. Attempting to scale meaningful revenue from charging fees will be a challenge, with low utilization likely to continue in the near term and our expectation of a lack of pricing power long term, Souther told investors in a research note. The analyst wants to see more transparency around the company's utilization rates to become more positive on the stock given the current ownership model preference.
IDR ANNOUNCEMENT: RBC Capital analyst Shelby Tucker upgraded NextEra Energy Partners (NEP) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a price target of $89, up from $86, following the company's announcement to cap incentive distribution rights fees at $157M. The IDR announcement will help NextEra gain financial flexibility through lower equity needs and give the company more "ammunition to execute on dropdowns or acquisitions," Tucker told investors in a research note.
SELL HYLIION: JPMorgan analyst Bill Peterson downgraded Hyliion Holdings (HYLN) to Underweight from Neutral without a price target. There will be an "increasingly competitive environment" within zero- and low-emission vehicles coming to market with a limited growth opportunity for natural gas vehicles in the long-term, Peterson told investors in a research note. In addition, the analyst argued that Hyliion's "distant commercialization timelines" for its fuel agnostic and fuel cell solutions may fail to gather customer interest following market penetration from early movers and incumbents in the trucking space. While Hyliion has a "solid balance sheet with reasonable spend," the shares will underperform the group over the next 12-18 months given its sensitivity to ongoing supply constraints, which could cause further commercialization delays and lack of meaningful differentiation over the long-term, Peterson wrote.
MORE SELECTIVE STANCE: Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Lee downgraded SunPower (SPWR) to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $13, down from $19, implying 25% downside. The analyst also downgraded Sunnova Energy (NOVA) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $24, down from $31, implying 23% upside. The analyst remains long-term bullish on the structural growth case for residential solar in the U.S., but believes it is prudent to take a "more selective stance" on the group in the current backdrop of heightened inflation and rising interest rates. These could negatively impact the appetite for certain residential solar products, Lee told investors in a research note. He sees potential for softening consumer demand in general, with the impact most pronounced in cash and loan sales.
Sunnova Energy
+0.085 (+0.43%)
SunPower
-0.17 (-0.95%)
Hyliion Holdings
+0.005 (+0.14%)
NextEra Energy Partners
+0.62 (+0.89%)
Blink Charging
+0.505 (+3.18%)
Beam Global
+0.27 (+1.76%)
ChargePoint
+0.63 (+4.50%)
Ford
+0.3 (+2.67%)
General Motors
+0.77 (+2.42%)
Tesla
+53.035 (+8.16%)