Tesla Inc (TSLA) is in focus this morning after Bill Gross said the electric vehicles behemoth has turned into a meme stock. 

Gross was once an influential investor in bond market of the United States. 

Tesla stock has gained a whopping 85% in less than three months. 

Why does Bill Gross see Tesla as a meme stock?

The former chief investment officer of Pimco made the striking remark on X.com. His post reads:

 

Tesla acting like a meme stock – sagging fundamentals, straight up price action. But then there seems to be a new meme stock every other day now. Most are pump and dump.

The comment suggests Bill Gross expects TSLA to give back at least some of its recent gains moving forward. Shares of the EV maker do not currently pay a dividend. 

TSLA saw a year-on-year decline in Q2 deliveries

Last week, Tesla Inc reported 443,956 vehicle deliveries for Q2 – down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis but ahead of Street estimates for the second quarter of 2024. 

Tesla stock has gained about 20% since the quarterly production and delivery update that Bill Gross finds rather unjustified. 

The cofounder of Pimco likened TESLA to Zapp, GameStop, and Chewy that most recently became a meme stock after Keith Gill or Roaring Kitty disclosed a sizable stake in CHWY. 

Roaring Kitty was the one who inspired the unprecedented short squeeze in GME shares in 2021. Chewy stock is up an exciting 60% versus its year-to-date low at writing. 

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Tesla to report second-quarter earnings on July 23rd

Investor Bill Gross previously called the likes of GME and AMC “lottery-ticket stocks” that he traded for quick profits in 2022. 

His comment on Tesla shares arrives a couple weeks before the EV manufacturer is scheduled to report its financial results for the second quarter. Consensus is for it to earn 47 cents a share versus 78 cents per share a year ago. 

Tesla is also expected to reveal a robotaxi on August 8th. Ahead of it, Wall Street has a consensus “overweight” rating on TSLA. Analysts, however, find it fairly valued at about $198 – a price the EV stock has left far behind already. 

Note that Nancy Pelosi – former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives recently trimmed her stake in Tesla Inc. She unloaded 2,500 shares of Tesla stock and increased her exposure to chipmakers Nvidia Corp and Broadcom Inc in exchange. 

The move possibly reflected her desire to capitalise on continued growth in artificial intelligence.

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