If You Had $5,000 Right Now, Would You Put It On Tesla, Nio, Workhorse, Plug Power Or FuelCell?

Every week, Benzinga conducts a survey to collect sentiment on what traders are most excited about, interested in or thinking about as they manage and build their personal portfolios.

This week we posed the following question to over 2,000 Benzinga visitors on clean energy investing:

If you had $5,000, would you put it on Tesla Inc TSLA, Nio Inc - ADR NIO, Workhorse Group Inc WKHS, Plug Power Inc PLUG or FuelCell Energy Inc FCEL right now?

• Tesla: 35.4%
• Nio: 26.8%
• Workhorse: 7.6%
• Plug Power: 17.8%
• FuelCell: 12.4%

See Also: How To Buy Nio Stock

Elon Musk’s Tesla received 35.4% of support in this week’s study.

Tesla shares were trading lower in Monday’s session after the U.S. opened a formal investigation of Tesla's autopilot system.

For the uninitiated, Tesla says the company’s cars come standard with advanced hardware capable of providing Autopilot features, and full self-driving capabilities — through software updates designed to improve functionality over time.

26.8% of traders and investors said they would invest in Nio in this week’s study.

Nio last week reported quarterly losses of 7 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of a loss of 11 cents per share. Nio also reported quarterly sales of $1.31 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.28 billion.

Shares of Nio were also trading lower Monday following a passenger's death in a Nio vehicle. This is resulting in many calling for stricter self-driving car safety regulations in China.

17.8% of traders and investors went with Plug Power and 12.4% FuelCell in this week’s survey.

Both Plug and FuelCell gained last Tuesday following Senate passage of an infrastructure bill, which is expected to benefit clean energy names. Apart from the surge going into and immediately preceding the passage of the infrastructure bill, the clean energy manufacturing stocks have been hammered in recent sessions. 

Plug Power is trading lower by 15.2% and FuelCell lower by 22.9% in the last five sessions.

Meanwhile, Plug Power last Tuesday broke ground on the site of a green hydrogen production plant in Camden County, GA, where the company says 15 tons of liquid green hydrogen will be produced per day.

Electric-powered delivery and utility vehicles manufacturer Workhorse collected 7.6% of support. 

Workhorse told investors Aug. 9 in the company’s second-quarter earnings it delivered a total of 14 trucks in the second quarter versus one truck last year. Workhorse also reported its cost of goods sold increased to $14.8 million from $1.5 million in the same period last year. 

The company says the increase in the cost of goods sold was primarily related to an increase in the volume of trucks shipped, a write-down of work in process and finished goods inventory to the lower of cost or net realizable value and an increase of employee, consulting, manufacturing overhead and freight costs.

This survey was conducted by Benzinga in August 2021 and included the responses of a diverse population of adults 18 or older.

Opting into the survey was completely voluntary, with no incentives offered to potential respondents. The study reflects results from over 2,000 adults.

Photo: courtesy of Plug Power.