Investor's Corner
Major Tesla shareholder criticizes Elon Musk amidst pay vote
One of Tesla’s largest individual shareholders has spoken out against CEO Elon Musk and his stake in the company, as investors vote on the CEO’s recently rejected 2018 pay package.
After a Delaware judge ruled in favor of a shareholder in a lawsuit in January, officially voiding Musk’s 2018 compensation package worth $55.8 billion, Tesla is now holding an investor vote over whether to approve or deny the pay plan as part of its upcoming Annual Shareholder’s Meeting. Musk has also requested a new compensation package with more stock, and thus, more voting control, even threatening to develop artificial intelligence elsewhere if he doesn’t get them.
Leo KoGuan, who is one of Tesla’s largest individual stakeholders, posted on X on Friday criticizing Musk for selling shares over the last few years, despite his asking for more voting control as part of the ongoing compensation vote. KoGuan also called Musk a “magician,” his supporters “brainless suckers,” and he referred to the proposed package as a “robbery attempt.”
He also notes that, although Musk has sold around $39 billion Tesla shares since the stock peaked in 2021, he still has a 13.4-percent stake in the company, although he wants an additional 10 percent. KoGuan says that he paid significantly more for his very small amount of shares in the company, amounting to around $3.5 billion for just 0.8 percent of the company’s shares.
Paid $3.5 billion for measly 0.8% of Tesla in the market. What is your skin in Tesla? Whereas the Magician is minus -$39 billion and already got 13.4% of Tesla. Robbery of ten thousand years! But he wanted 10% more. Brainless SUCKERS cluelessly are assisting this robbery attempt. https://t.co/SxGfrbjtCY
— KoGuan Leo (@KoguanLeo) May 5, 2024
The statements followed a similar post made by KoGuan just 20 minutes earlier, in which he claimed that Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy was just a “ruse to suck in naive investors and engineers.” He followed up with another post blatantly saying shareholders should vote no:
https://twitter.com/KoguanLeo/status/1786942715411972167
This isn’t the first time that KoGuan has been critical of Musk, though he was generally a supporter of the Tesla CEO just a few years ago. KoGuan said last month that Musk should consider “fading away and appointing his replacement” if he isn’t willing to spend more time on Tesla. He also said in January that Musk is “killing shareholders and Tesla,” adding that he wouldn’t have invested in the company had he known this before.
Voting on the package and other proposals began when Board Chair Robyn Denholm filed the company’s proxy statement. Tesla and Denholm have both expressed support for the ratification of Musk’s pay package, as well as for the company’s intent to move incorporation from Delaware to Texas.
“We do not agree with what the Delaware Court decided, and we do not think that what the Delaware Court said is how corporate law should or does work,” Denholm wrote in the filing. “So we are coming to you now so you can help fix this issue—which is a matter of fundamental fairness and respect to our CEO.”
Tesla will hold its Annual Shareholder Meeting on June 13, and shareholders can vote on ratifying Musk’s 2018 pay plan between now and then. The company has also launched a dedicated web page detailing how to cast shareholder votes and suggesting that investors vote yes on two proposals, which you can see here. You can also find Tesla’s full proxy statement here.
What are your thoughts? Have you voted on Tesla’s Shareholder Meeting proposals yet? Let me know how you voted at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at@zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) just got a price target boost from its biggest bear, Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research, who raised his expected trading level to one that is 95 percent lower than its current trading level.
Johnson pushed his Tesla price target from $19.05 to $25.28 on Wednesday, while maintaining the ‘Sell’ rating that has been present on the stock for a long time. GLJ has largely been recognized as the biggest skeptic of Elon Musk’s company, being particularly critical of the automotive side of things.
Tesla has routinely been called out by Johnson for negative delivery growth, what he calls “weakening demand,” and price cuts that have occurred in past years, all pointing to them as desperate measures to sell its cars.
Johnson has also said that Tesla is extremely overvalued and is too reliant on regulatory credits for profitability. Other analysts on the bullish side recognize Tesla as a company that is bigger than just its automotive side.
Many believe it is a leader in autonomous driving, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, who believes Tesla will have a widely successful 2026, especially if it can come through on its targets and schedules for Robotaxi and Cybercab.
Justifying the price target this week, Johnson said that the revised valuation is based on “reality rather than narrative.” Tesla has been noted by other analysts and financial experts as a stock that trades on narrative, something Johnson obviously disagrees with.
Dan Nathan, a notorious skeptic of the stock, turned bullish late last year, recognizing the company’s shares trade on “technicals and sentiment.” He said, “From a trading perspective, it looks very interesting.”
Tesla bear turns bullish for two reasons as stock continues boost
Johnson has remained very consistent with this sentiment regarding Tesla and his beliefs regarding its true valuation, and has never shied away from putting his true thoughts out there.
Tesla shares closed at $431.40 today, about 95 percent above where Johnson’s new price target lies.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock received a price target update from Pierre Ferragu of Wall Street firm New Street Research, citing the company’s growing lead in self-driving and autonomy.
On Tuesday, Ferragu bumped his price target from $520 to $600, stating that the consensus from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was that Tesla’s lead in autonomy has been sustained, is growing, and sits at a multiple-year lead over its competitors.
CES 2026 validates Tesla’s FSD strategy, but there’s a big lag for rivals: analyst
“The signal from Vegas is loud and clear,” the analyst writes. “The industry isn’t catching up to Tesla; it is actively validating Tesla’s strategy…just with a 12-year lag.”
The note shows that the company’s prowess in vehicle autonomy is being solidified by lagging competitors that claim to have the best method. The only problem is that Tesla’s Vision-based approach, which it adopted back in 2022 with the Model 3 and Model Y initially, has been proven to be more effective than competitors’ approach, which utilizes other technology, such as LiDAR and sensors.
Currently, Tesla shares are sitting at around $433, as the company’s stock price closed at $432.96 on Tuesday afternoon.
Ferragu’s consensus on Tesla shares echoes that of other Wall Street analysts who are bullish on the company’s stock and position within the AI, autonomy, and robotics sector.
Dan Ives of Wedbush wrote in a note in mid-December that he anticipates Tesla having a massive 2026, and could reach a $3 trillion valuation this year, especially with the “AI chapter” taking hold of the narrative at the company.
Ives also said that the big step in the right direction for Tesla will be initiating production of the Cybercab, as well as expanding on the Robotaxi program through the next 12 months:
“…as full-scale volume production begins with the autonomous and robotics roadmap…The company has started to test the all-important Cybercab in Austin over the past few weeks, which is an incremental step towards launching in 2026 with important volume production of Cybercabs starting in April/May, which remains the golden goose in unlocking TSLA’s AI valuation.”
Tesla analyst breaks down delivery report: ‘A step in the right direction’
Tesla has transitioned from an automaker to a full-fledged AI company, and its Robotaxi and Cybercab programs, fueled by the Full Self-Driving suite, are leading the charge moving forward. In 2026, there are major goals the company has outlined. The first is removing Safety Drivers from vehicles in Austin, Texas, one of the areas where it operates a ride-hailing service within the U.S.
Ultimately, Tesla will aim to launch a Level 5 autonomy suite to the public in the coming years.
Investor's Corner
Tesla Q4 delivery numbers are better than they initially look: analyst
The Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner shared his thoughts in a post on his website.
Longtime Tesla analyst and Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner Gene Munster has shared his insights on Tesla’s Q4 2025 deliveries. As per the analyst, Tesla’s numbers are actually better than they first appear.
Munster shared his thoughts in a post on his website.
Normalized December Deliveries
Munster noted that Tesla delivered 418k vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2025, slightly below Street expectations of 420k but above the whisper number of 415k. Tesla’s reported 16% year-over-year decline, compared to +7% in September, is largely distorted by the timing of the tax credit expiration, which pulled forward demand.
“Taking a step back, we believe September deliveries pulled forward approximately 55k units that would have otherwise occurred in December or March. For simplicity, we assume the entire pull-forward impacted the December quarter. Under this assumption, September growth would have been down ~5% absent the 55k pull-forward, a Deepwater estimate tied to the credit’s expiration.
“For December deliveries to have declined ~5% year over year would imply total deliveries of roughly 470k. Subtracting the 55k units pulled into September results in an implied December delivery figure of approximately 415k. The reported 418k suggests that, when normalizing for the tax credit timing, quarter-over-quarter growth has been consistently down ~5%. Importantly, this ~5% decline represents an improvement from the ~13% declines seen in both the March and June 2025 quarters.“
Tesla’s United States market share
Munster also estimated that Q4 as a whole might very well show a notable improvement in Tesla’s market share in the United States.
“Over the past couple of years, based on data from Cox Automotive, Tesla has been losing U.S. EV market share, declining to just under 50%. Based on data for October and November, Cox estimates that total U.S. EV sales were down approximately 35%, compared to Tesla’s just reported down 16% for the full quarter. For the first two months of the quarter, Cox reported Tesla market share of roughly a 65% share, up from under 50% in the September quarter.
“While this data excludes December, the quarter as a whole is likely to show a material improvement in Tesla’s U.S. EV market share.“
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