There is no question that US-based Tesla has made the auto sector exciting again but as the hype gradually starts to settle around the stock and it reverts to economic fundamentals, there are questions about how it will shape up against the major players in the industry.
I pulled this 1-year graph comparing the performances of Tesla against a variety of other major players:
For those not familiar with the stock symbols, Tesla is down 5.78% year to date (Black), Ford is off 5.3% (Orange), GM (Blue) is up 10.9%, BMW (Red) is up 3.9%, Volvo is up 12.8% (Green) and the lighter red is Volkswagen up 15.5%.
Japanese auto groups Nissan and Honda are up about 13% and Toyota has done 19% in the last 12 months.
While there is a lot of hype around electric cars – an area where almost all of the major manufacturers are focusing – what often gets missed about the auto sector is the dividend yield on offer from a number of them:
|
Company |
Dividend Yield % | Price to Earnings Multiple | Price to Book Ratio |
| BMW | 4.41% | 6.92 | 1.1 |
| Ford | 5.55% | 6.71 | 1.2 |
| General Motors | 4% | 5.29 | 1.5 |
| Nissan | 4.67% | 5.37 | 0.83 |
| Tesla | 0% | N/A | 11.5 |
| Toyota | 3% | 8.5 | 1.07 |
| Volkswagen | 2.3% | 7.31 | 0.86 |
| Volvo | 2.6% | 15.6 | 3 |
Tesla has made a lot of people a lot of money over the past 5 years but it has been based on having people to sell the stock to. The above table suggests that the other auto manufacturers are providing less spectacular but more sustainable returns to shareholders.
If you are interested in buying offshore auto-manufacturers or trading Tesla shares out of South Africa then please drop me a line on marc@decusatio.co.zaand I will connect you with somebody who can assist.
