EV STOCK LUCID PICKS UP A NEW RATING. IT ISN'T A BUY. -- BARRONS.COM
6 September 2023, 16:30, Al Root
Electric-vehicle start-up Lucid Group has some impressive tech, but it needs more volume before Wall Street gets excited about the stock.Tuesday evening, Baird analyst Ben Kallo launched coverage of Lucid stock (ticker: LCID) with a Hold rating and $7 price target.
There is a lot to like at Lucid, writes Kallo including industry-leading battery technology. The Lucid Air sedan gets more than 400 miles per charge. "However, high starting prices and a niche-market segment create a challenging near-term setup, in our view," added the analyst in his initial report. "We look for improved consumer health and progress in LCID's volume ramp to become more constructive."
Lucid produced 2,173 vehicles in the second quarter, down from a peak quarterly production of 3,493 produced in the fourth quarter of 2022. Ramping production has proved difficult, selling ultra luxury cars has proved difficult too. Many Lucid trims end up costing more than $100,000, and the market such cars is small. Lucid needs to expand its product lineup. The Gravity SUV is slated to be produced in 2024, but it will be a luxury vehicle, too.
Kallo also covers Rivian Automotive (RIVN)
and Tesla (TSLA)
. He rates shares of both companies at Buy, with respective price targets of $30 and $300.
Rivian is producing more EVs than Lucid, and Rivian's cost less. Rivian produced 13,992 vehicles in the second quarter. Tesla, of course, is the largest maker of battery-electric vehicles on the planet. It produced 479,700 vehicles in the second quarter.
The rating isn't having a big impact on Lucid shares, which are off about 0.2% in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite futures are both down about 0.2%.
Overall, 36% of analysts covering Lucid rate shares at Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target for Lucid stock is about $7.50, a little higher than Kallo's.
Barron's wrote in November that Lucid stock was overpriced, and that investors buying shares were underestimating how hard it is to build EVs and a car business from scratch. Since then shares have dropped about 44% while the Nasdaq has surged about 26%.
Write to Al Root at
allen.root@dowjones.comThis content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. (END) Dow Jones NewswiresSeptember 06, 2023 09:30 ET (13:30 GMT)Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.