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Investor's Corner

Tesla bull posts 10 actions Elon Musk must do to improve sentiments on TSLA

Credit: Tesla

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Longtime Tesla bull Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities has been pretty vocal about his reservations surrounding CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter activities and their potentially adverse effects on TSLA stock. But while Ives has expressed his concerns about Musk and his leadership of Twitter, the analyst has maintained an overall bullish stance on the EV maker. 

Ives has a $175 per share price target and an “Outperform” rating for Tesla, and in a recent note, Ives stated that CEO Elon Musk must initiate a number of actions to ensure that the negative sentiments surrounding the company are addressed in 2023. These actions cover several decisions surrounding Musk’s activities on both Twitter and Tesla. Among these actions is Musk naming a CEO for Twitter by the end of next month. 

Ives also highlighted that Musk must focus his attention back on Tesla, and he must also stop selling stock carelessly. The Wedbush analyst noted that Musk must formally adopt a 10b5-1 plan. This way, Tesla investors would not be caught off guard by the CEO’s TSLA stock sales. Perhaps most importantly, Ives also argued that Musk’s political statements are affecting Tesla and the EV sector negatively.

Following are Ives’ suggestions

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Top 10 Actions Musk Needs to Do at Tesla/Twitter in 2023

  • Name a CEO of Twitter by the end of January.
  • Stop selling stock and no more boy that cried wolf or Pinocchio situation. Formally adopt a 10b5-1 plan so investors know there is no major selling block around the corner as Musk sold roughly $40 billion of TSLA stock the past year.
  • Lay out conservative 2023 delivery and targets given the darker macro. The 50% growth target is not happening in our opinion, with 35%+ delivery growth a more hittable and realistic goal for 2023.
  • Focus attention back on Tesla, not Twitter (goes hand in hand with new Twitter CEO being named). Musk is the hearts and lung of Tesla and vice versa.
  • Announce Cybertruck deliveries will hit the road by the end of 2023. Timing is key here with competition from all angles and worries production woes will push this into 2024. Giga Austin is up and running and now key to hitting this next growth endeavor for Tesla.
  • Board of Directors changes with some more experience around tech and EV leadership. We believe new additions to the Board would be welcomed by the Street at this tenuous time.
  • Buybacks, Buybacks, Buybacks. Announcing a major stock buyback program is important/key for the Street’s confidence and with the stock at these levels a no brainer strategic move in our opinion for Tesla given its massive treasure chest.
  • More financial metrics and transparency around the margin structure at Tesla. We believe this is a hidden gem at the company with more production/sales in China and Giga Berlin and Austin ramping. Long term margin targets will be key for the Street.
  • The more political on Twitter that Musk becomes is a bad thing for selling EV cars to the masses. It’s that simple and this remains a key investor concern.
  • Lay out the strategic plan for Twitter. Right now very simply the fear is Twitter is bleeding money with advertisers fleeing (for now) which means more losses and therefore more Musk TSLA stock sales. Once a new CEO is in place lay out the 3- year strategy of Twitter and what this can become, Super App, “X”, WeChat 2.0, etc.

Ives’ 10 suggestions for Elon Musk have been received quite well on social media, with some Tesla bulls noting that the actions were sound and logical. Others, however, have noted that Tesla would be fine even if Musk does not follow any of Wedbush’s suggestions, as the electric vehicle maker’s fundamentals remain strong

Disclosure: Maria holds TSLA shares. 

The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.

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Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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Investor's Corner

Lucid denies rumors of bankruptcy after over 40% stock drop

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Credit: Lucid

Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.

Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”

Twork said:

Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.

Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.

Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla gets price target upgrade on heels of crazy successful auto quarter

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla received a price target upgrade just on the heels of what was a crazy successful quarter for its automotive business, as the company reported a delivery beat of over 15 percent for Q2.

Jefferies analysts are upping Tesla’s price target (NASDAQ: TSLA) to $400 from $375, while maintaining their “Hold” rating on shares, and the strong automotive deliveries from Q2 is a big reason. However, there are some other catalysts that Jefferies believes position Tesla for a strong position in the second half of the year.

Strong Deliveries

Tesla reported 480,000 deliveries for Q2, while Wall Street was between 395,000 and 405,000, as an overall consensus. It was an incredibly strong quarter from a delivery perspective, and Tesla sold well more than it produced during the three months.

Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent

While vehicle deliveries are not necessarily looked at in the light that they used to be, Tesla still maintains a lot of advantages for keeping deliveries strong. With the loss of the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year, Tesla still maintains a strong demand case for its EVs.

Robotaxi Performance

Tesla has been operating Robotaxi for over a year now, as it launched in Austin in mid-2025. That program has expanded to Houston and Dallas, the San Francisco Bay Area, and, most recently, Miami, Florida, the suite’s first appearance in the Sunshine State.

While the Robotaxi suite is still in its early phases and Tesla is working through things like fleet size and wait times, the company has been able to undercut the pricing of its competitors and has a great safety record.

Merger Speculation with Tesla and SpaceX

This is perhaps the biggest topic that many are speaking about with Tesla and SpaceX, and it is the one thing that seems to be on the mind of every investor.

Jefferies warns that growing talk of a Tesla-SpaceX merger could cause Tesla stock to trade more like a SpaceX proxy, which may disconnect it from underlying automotive fundamentals. SpaceX has a lot going for it, especially its compute deals that have been widely publicized as of late.

Profitability in New Projects Could Take Some Time

Tesla has a few long-term ventures in the pipeline, most notably the Optimus project and Robotaxi, which is launched but will take several years to expand to a meaningful level that resonates with everyday people.

This is something that investors need to be careful of. Tesla’s projects could take some time to round out, so Jefferies advises that these may carry initial losses, rather than immediate profit. Seasoned Tesla investors have echoed something like this for a long time; they knew going in it would not be an open-and-shut strategy. It was going to take time.

These new projects are no different.

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Investor's Corner

NASA taps SpaceX to launch the telescope that could unlock new worlds

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope heads to orbit this August aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy with massive scientific ambitions.

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SpaceX is set to play a central role in one of NASA’s most anticipated science missions in years. The company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, currently the most powerful operational launch vehicle in the world, will carry the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into orbit on August 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman is now in final preparations inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where on June 26 technicians used a crane to lift the observatory into a specialized stand for fueling and pre-launch testing.

Roman is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief of astronomy, whose career helped shape how the agency approaches space science.

NASA chose SpaceX Falcon Heavy because of Roman’s needs to reach a specific orbit far from Earth, well beyond where a standard Falcon 9 can deliver it. The Falcon Heavy, which first flew in 2018, has since become NASA’s go-to option for missions that need serious muscle without the cost and complexity of older launch systems.

Celebrating SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Tesla Roadster launch, seven years later (Op-Ed)

Roman will carry a field of view at least 100 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope, meaning it can photograph enormous swaths of the universe in a single shot rather than the narrow slices Hubble captures. That difference in scale is significant. While Hubble reshaped our understanding of the cosmos over 30 years, Roman is built to work faster and wider, surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies at once.

One of Roman’s most compelling capabilities is its potential to discover and photograph planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, and with enough precision to directly image planets that would otherwise be lost. That means scientists could study the atmosphere and surface characteristics of distant worlds rather than simply confirming they exist. Combined with Roman’s sweeping field of view, the telescope could detect thousands of exoplanets, and some of those planets may be in habitable zones where liquid water could exist. No telescope currently in operation has this level of power and capability. That capability alone could change what we know about other worlds, and perhaps finally answer the question: are we the only intelligent lifeforms in existence? 

What Roman actually finds once it reaches orbit is an open question, and that is exactly what makes this launch worth watching.

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