Shares of Tesla (TSLA) jumped yesterday after CEO Elon Musk said he would like to see the company go private, but have since stepped into negative territory as analysts debate the idea. While Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois believes going private "feels like the right thing to do", his peer at Morgan Stanley questions the feasibility of Musk actually being able to achieve that goal.

TAKING TESLA PRIVATE: Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he is considering taking the electric carmaker private. In an email to the company's employees, the executive explained: "Earlier today, I announced that I'm considering taking Tesla private at a price of $420/share. [...] As a public company, we are subject to wild swings in our stock price that can be a major distraction for everyone working at Tesla, all of whom are shareholders. Being public also subjects us to the quarterly earnings cycle that puts enormous pressure on Tesla to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the long-term. Finally, as the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market, being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company". Meanwhile, members of Tesla's board said on Wednesday that they have "met several times over the last week" and are "taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate" Musk's desire to take the company private. Their talks with Musk, which started last week, included "discussions as to how being private could better serve Tesla's long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur," the board members stated in a press release.

'RIGHT THING TO DO': Commenting on the news, Jefferies' Houchois told investors in a research note that the move "feels right" even if Musk is downplaying how supportive public markets have been. With Tesla unable to take on more debt, the analyst wonders who may fund the potential deal and end up as a new large shareholder. While the second quarter de-stressed the near-term outlook, Houchois pointed out that Tesla did not reassure about sustained demand for Model 3 at high prices and that profitability can support organic funding of investments in future products and manufacturing capacity. He continues to think Tesla will need additional capital to fund these or risk being caught with a narrow and aging product range within 2 years. Noting that his discounted cash flow fair value points to $300 per share, the analyst raised his price target on the stock to $360 from $250, "bridging the gap" to the $420 potential going private bid. The analyst reiterated a Hold rating on Tesla.

BUT WILL IT BE FEASIBLE?: While Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas sympathizes with Elon Musk's argument that Tesla could be better off as a private company, he questions the feasibility of the CEO actually being able to achieve that goal. Taking the company private would assume either that the company is on the verge of generating self-sustaining cash flows or that it can tap into a range of strategic sources of capital not previously at its disposal, said Jonas, who sees strategic value at Tesla, but thinks the "LBO math required to support [a price of] $420 is extremely aggressive." The benefits of being private are outweighed by the risks of added financial leverage, which could be even more strategically limiting, added Jonas, who reiterated an Equal Weight rating and a $291 price target on Tesla shares. Meanwhile, his peer at JPMorgan raised his price target for Tesla to $308 from $195 to reflect the possibility of the company going private. However, analyst Ryan Brinkman told investors that he still believes that Tesla's valuation based on fundamentals alone "is worth no more than $195" per share. The analyst added that he is not as certain as CEO Elon Musk on Tesla going private, and assigns only a 50% probability to such a scenario while reiterating an Underweight rating on the shares.

PRICE ACTION: In afternoon trading, shares of Tesla have dropped 1.6% to $373.63.