Tesla Slides on S&P 500 Debut

By Christiana Sciaudone

Investing.com —  Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 6% from an all-time high as it makes its debut in the S&P 500. 

The stock hit a record of $695 on Friday, and had rallied some 730% this year. 

Tesla is the most valuable company admitted to the Wall Street benchmark and will account for 1.69% of the index, Reuters said, citing S&P Dow Jones Indices’ analyst Howard Silverblatt. 

The electric vehicle maker traced broader markets lower as the U.K. shut down amid a mutation of the coronavirus that frightened investors. The $900 billion stimulus plan that was finally agreed upon yesterday wasn’t enough to ease fears. The company is trading at a forward price to earnings ratio of about 172 times, according to Yahoo Finance. That measure of value compares to Ford’s 24 times, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s 32 times and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s 30 times.

Analysts are split on the stock, which has 7seven buy ratings, 11 holds and seven sells, according to data compiled by Investing.com. Price targets range widely from $60 to $750, with the average at about $417.

On Sunday, founder Elon Musk engaged in a Twitter conversation with Microstrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) Chief Executive Officer Michael Saylor, a bitcoin buff, and inquired about converting “large transactions” of Tesla’s balance sheet into the digital currency, Bloomberg reported.   

Bitcoin has been trading at all time highs recently.