Survey Shows Engineering Students Want To Work For Elon Musk

Many Tesla Inc TSLA investors look beyond the business’ near-term valuation and focus on the potential long-term advantages the company has over competitors. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said a new survey suggests one of those major advantages will be access to top talent.

Engineering Students’ Top Choices: Universum recently released its “Most Attractive Employers in the United States” survey of 44,000 American students. Universum found that among engineering students, Tesla is the most attractive place to work.

Here are the companies that round out the top five:

1. Tesla
2. SpaceX
3. Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT
4. Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL
5. Boeing Co BA

“We found the results to be relevant for investors thinking about the long term future of autos and space and relative competitive advantages with respect to talent,” Jonas wrote in a Monday note.

He said the biggest advantages for transformative technology companies are top talent and access to cheap capital, and Tesla has both.

Other Automakers: The popularity of legacy automakers is also on the rise among today’s engineering students. Ford Motor Company F climbed four spots on this year’s survey to No. 12, while General Motors Company GM also gained four spots to No. 15 on the list of most attractive companies among engineering students.

In fact, five of the top 21 spots on this year’s list are auto companies, according to Jonas.

In addition to its popularity among engineering students, Tesla ranked as the No. 5 most attractive company among Computer Science students and the No. 7 most preferred company among business students. Google landed the top spot in each of those categories.

Benzinga’s Take: There’s no question Tesla is a popular brand among college students, but it doesn’t necessarily make the stock a great investment after it gained 537% in the past year.

Morgan Stanley has an Underweight rating and $1,050 price target for Tesla.

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Photo by Steve Jurvetson via Wikimedia.