Tesla’s Fast Start to the Year Leaves Value Stocks in the Dust

(Bloomberg) -- January was another dagger in the side of value investing.

Growth stocks outperformed value by 4.5% in January, by far the biggest disparity in any month in the 20-year history of the corresponding Bloomberg indexes.

The previous widest gap for growth over value was just 2.8% in May 2017. The loss continues a particularly poor stretch for value stocks, defined as equities that trade at relatively low ratios to metrics like their dividends, earnings or sales. Over the last two years, growth has outpaced value in 16 of the 24 months.

What happened in January? For an answer you only have to look at one member of the growth cohort: Tesla Inc. The electric car-maker’s 56% gain to start the year contributed a whopping 32 basis points to the growth index during the month. That’s almost three times the contribution of Uber Technologies Inc., the stock with the second biggest impact on the growth index.

The discrepancy was even larger, 66 basis points, if you factor in that the value index is short Tesla shares.

And if the first day of February trading is any indication, growth could be in store for another milestone month. Tesla’s stock surged by as much as 13% Monday on the news that Panasonic Corp. turned a profit at the battery plant it jointly operates with Tesla in Nevada.

--With assistance from Tom Lagerman.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brandon Kochkodin in New York at bkochkodin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Weisenthal at jweisenthal@bloomberg.net, Larry Reibstein

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