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Bearish Bets in Tesla Climb Amid Low Model 3 Expectations

The electric vehicle maker is expected to announce its first-quarter delivery numbers some time next week.

Bearish Bets in Tesla Climb Amid Low Model 3 Expectations
A Tesla Motor Inc. logo is displayed on the wheel of a Model 3 vehicle outside the company’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. (Photographer: Troy Harvey/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Yet another moment of truth is approaching for Tesla, and the shorts are getting ready.

The electric vehicle maker is expected to announce its first-quarter delivery numbers some time next week, even as the company tries to make sense of a fatal crash of its Model X car in Arizona earlier this month. Bearish bets in Tesla have now risen to nearly 25 percent of its free float, touching the highest level since late May, 2017. The stock, meanwhile, has nosedived.

Bearish Bets in Tesla Climb Amid Low Model 3 Expectations

The Elon Musk company’s shares are trading roughly 77 percent lower than the average Wall Street price target of $329.92. The last time Tesla’s price target ratio fell below 80 percent was on December 12, 2016.

Bearish Bets in Tesla Climb Amid Low Model 3 Expectations

--With assistance from Gilbert Xu (Bloomberg Global Data).

To contact the reporters on this story: Esha Dey in New York at edey@bloomberg.net, Wendy Soong in New York at csoong@bloomberg.net, Kimberly Yuen in New York at kyuen3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Arie Shapira at ashapira3@bloomberg.net, Esha Dey

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.