Tesla Short Interest Over 34 Million Shares

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 2:58PM EST · Published Feb 10, 7:05AM EST

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Tesla Short Interest Over 34 Million Shares — © courtesy of Tesla Motors Corp.

The short interest in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) for the period that ended January 31 was 34.4 million shares, a very modest drop of 700,000. However, the number is 28% of Tesla’s float, which means the bet against it still is large.

Tesla’s shares have posted a steady increase this year, which makes the short bets very risky (unless some very bad news hits the company). The stock is up 26% year to date to $269. This is just below a 52-week high.

Many analysts believe Tesla will beat earnings estimates when it quarterly results are released in a few days. Additionally, its inexpensive Model 3 is about to begin production. And the company is about to move into India, a modest car market now, but the world’s second largest nation by population. CEO Elon Musk, according to Reuters, indicated on February 8:

Electric car maker Tesla Inc may enter the Indian market this summer, Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday.

Replying to a question on Twitter regarding whether Tesla plans to launch in India, Musk tweeted: “Hoping for summer this year.”

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If Musk can begin to deliver the Model 3 this year, he can claim Tesla has become a mainstream car company. The price of the car is below $40,000. Tesla says it has 400,000 orders for the car. Tesla has been a niche car company so far, with sales to rich buyers who can manage the price over $80,000, and in some cars over $100,000.

Upcoming earnings may be a test of whether there is demand for its current vehicles. And, by the end of the year, the proof that Tesla has “legs” in the car market will be clearer.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.