Tesla is bigger than Walmart!
Shares race past $2,000 milestone
TESLA has raced pass Walmart in value, marking another extraordinary milestone in the electric car maker’s rise.
A fresh surge in the firm’s share price has taken its market capitalisation to $373bn, eclipsing the US supermarket group’s $370bn.
It comes ahead of Tesla’s planned shares split, which will see investors given five shares for every one they hold.
The company’s stock passed the $2,000 mark on Thursday, taking its rally so far this year to almost 380pc.
However, its size and revenues are just a fraction of those of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer.
Walmart boasts annual revenues of $524bn and profits of $15bn, compared to Tesla’s revenues of $24.6bn and profit of $35.8m in 2019. It also employs 2.2m people, has 11,500 stores globally, serves some 265m customers and has one of America’s mostvisited websites after online rival Amazon. Tesla has about 50,000 employees and about 200 stores globally. It has produced more than 1m electric cars since 2012. However, some analysts predict that Musk’s firm is set to become one of the largest in the world off the back of its cutting-edge battery technology, which has given it a lead over traditional car makers.
It has also boosted investor confidence recently by ramping up production of its flagship Model 3 car and successfully expanding into China, where it has built a new factory in Shanghai.
Critics have claimed its meteoric rise this year is a sign the company has become a ‘bubble stock’.
But Tim Bain, president at investment group Spark Asset Management, said earlier this month: ‘Investors need to focus on whether or not Tesla can continue to move beyond being just a car company.
‘In order to justify a valuation that can continue to grow at above-market rates, investing in Tesla today requires you to believe that they will move into energy production and storage.’
Tesla shares, which have soared more than 800pc in the past 12 months, were trading at around $2,080 just before the closing bell on Wall Street last night.