Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund

Tesla (TSLA) Stock Gets Big Vote Of Confidence From Oregon Pension Fund

Tesla (NASDAQ: TLSA) gained a big vote of confidence from the Oregon Public Employees Retirements Fund (Operf) recently. The pension fund added TSLA to its domestic-equities portfolio, revealing the stock's possible position of strength during the ongoing pandemic--which has adversely affected multiple industries.

Operf's bought 47,000 Tesla shares during the first quarter, according to a form it submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Operf did not hold any TSLA stocks in 2019. The Oregon pension fund's vote of confidence in Tesla during a global pandemic may indicate the EV automaker's resilience during trying times.

Tesla stock was slightly affected by the pandemic, dropping to US$361.22 on March 18, 2020. Over the past twelve months, the lowest Tesla stock ever dropped was to US$176.99 on June 3, 2019. TSLA shares reached up to UD$917 on February 19, 2020, before the virus outbreak in the United States.

Tesla will be holding its Q1 2020 Earnings Call on April 29, after which shareholders and analysts can understand how the EV automaker performed during the first quarter. As of this writing, Wall Street expects TSLA to report a per-share loss of 18 cents on revenue of US$5.85 billion in its shareholders' letter released before the Earnings Call.

"The OPERF public-equity portfolio is managed with a similar allocation and exposures to that of the benchmark (MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index)," Michael Viteri—the senior public-equity investment officer of the Oregon State Treasury which manages Operf--told Barron's.

"The portfolio contains a mix of 36 differentiated investment strategies, managed by 18 distinct managers (including staff), organized across style (core/ growth/value) capitalization range (large/mid/small/micro), and geography (country/region/global)."

He also clarified some details about the Operf investment program, including that it "is not a top-down view (Buy or Sell) imposed by Oregon State Treasury. Rather, trades are a function of the bottom-up views of our fundamental managers, or a function of model changes driven by the quantitative strategies our managers utilize."

Besides TSLA, Operf also bought a high volume of General Electric (GE) and Bristol- Myers Squibb (BMY) stocks. In contrast, it sold a sixth of its AT&T (T) investment.

Featured Image Credit: Jakob Härter/Flickr

Legal Disclaimer --

This article is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any such information or other material as an investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this article constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Ma. Claribelle Deveza, Tesmanian, or any third party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

Ma. Claribelle Deveza holds zero share of Tesla, Inc., and currently (at the time of this article's publishing) holds zero options or securities in Tesla Inc. and/or its affiliates.

About the Author

Ma. Claribelle Deveza

Ma. Claribelle Deveza

Longtime writer and news/book editor. Writing about Tesla allows me to contribute something good to the world, while doing something I love.

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