By Christiana Sciaudone
Investing.com -- Nikola Corp (NASDAQ:NKLA) offered a detailed defense against accusations of deceit in a statement on Monday.
The stock first tumbled only to reverse course, now trading up more than 4%.
Shares last week spiked after General Motors (NYSE:GM) took a stake in the electric truck maker, only to tumble after short-seller Hindenburg Research called the company a fraud.
Nikola said Monday that the Hindenburg report was designed to provide a false impression to investors and to negatively manipulate the market in order to financially benefit short sellers, including Hindenburg itself. Nikola said the report contains false and misleading statements regarding the company’s operations and R&D efforts.
Hindenburg cited a 2017 video as showing a truck “simply filmed rolling down a big hill.” Nikola does not quite dispute that fact, and says the company "never stated its truck was driving under its own propulsion in the video."
"The fact is, Nikola has real working hydrogen fuel-cell powered semi-trucks," Nikola said in the statement. "Any reports intended to suggest that Nikola’s trucks do not drive are erroneous."
Wedbush also defended Nikola, seeing more than 50% upside, according to Seeking Alpha. That is, if the company can execute, said analyst Dan Ives.
"If Trevor and the team can successfully build out its Arizona factory, morph prototypes into models (both on Badger and trucking front), lay the groundwork for its charging network, and catalyze delivery trucking orders with an attractive gross margin structure then the opportunity for NKLA is massive and the stock will reflect this dynamic," said Ives, who maintained his neutral rating on the company, with a price target of $45.
Nikola has two buy ratings, three holds and no sells, according to MarketWatch. The average target price is $53.60. The shares are currently trading around $33.80.