Citron Calls Luminar Technologies A 'Suckers Game,' Sets $20 Price Target

Citron Research editor and notorious short seller Andrew Left announced his latest short thesis on Tuesday.

Less than two weeks after calling Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR a “full casino,” Left took his criticism of electric vehicle stock Luminar Technologies Inc (NASDAQ LAZR) one step further.

“$LAZR at $14 bil ($40) is not even a casino stock...you can actually win at a casino..it is more of a ‘suckers game,’” Left tweeted.

Left Targets EV Stocks: Luminar is the latest EV stock to skyrocket after going public via a SPAC last Thursday. The stock has since skyrocketed 110% in three days before falling 7% in early Tuesday trading.

Instead, Left said investors should be buying Velodyne Lidar Inc VLDR.

“Would much rather own industry leader $VLDR at less than $4 bil mkt cap. Citron expects $LAZR back at $20 and $VLDR at $30,” Left tweeted.

Velodyne shares traded higher by 10.1% on Tuesday.

Left has previously criticized several popular EV stocks for their valuations, including announcing a short thesis for Nio Inc - ADR NIO back on Nov. 13. In November 2018, Left compared Nio to Tesla Inc TSLA when Nio was trading at around $7 per share, but he said last month that investors should take profits on the stock after it has gained nearly 2,000% in the past year.

Left has also recently called Electrameccanica Vehicles Corp SOLO “a complete joke” and EV charging station stock Blink Charging Co BLNK a “total scheme.”

Benzinga’s Take: Short sellers that have focused on fundamental valuation analysis have been getting killed for years now, especially when it comes to betting against EV stocks. However, Left’s bearish holiday EV bets have been paying off in the last couple of weeks given shares of Nio, Electrameccanica and Blink Charging are all down between 4% and 14% in the past two weeks.

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