Investor's Corner
Tesla bull posts 10 actions Elon Musk must do to improve sentiments on TSLA
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.
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.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
In a striking revelation that underscores the lucrative crossover between Big Tech and space exploration, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, disclosed a massive $94.1 billion equity stake in SpaceX following the rocket company’s blockbuster initial public offering earlier this year.
The disclosure came in Alphabet’s quarterly filing, marking the first time the long-held private investment has been publicly valued at market prices. Google was an early backer, investing alongside Fidelity in 2015 with roughly $500-900 million at a time when SpaceX was valued around $12 billion.
That bet has delivered extraordinary returns, roughly a hundredfold, transforming a strategic play on satellite internet and launch capabilities into one of Alphabet’s largest assets.
Google, $GOOGL, has said they hold $94 billion in SpaceX, $SPCX, shares after IPO.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 23, 2026
Of the total holding, approximately $80 billion remains subject to short-term post-IPO lockup restrictions, preventing near-term sales. An additional $14.1 billion faces longer-term restrictions, extending into the third quarter of 2027. This structure limits immediate liquidity but protects against market volatility as SpaceX transitions into public trading.
The SpaceX position contributed significantly to gains in Alphabet’s broader investment portfolio, which also includes a major stake in AI leader Anthropic. Combined, these holdings helped drive nearly $100 billion in investment gains during the second quarter, providing a substantial boost to net income amid ongoing AI spending pressures.
Analysts view the disclosure as validation of Alphabet’s venture strategy beyond its core search and cloud businesses. The investment aligns with deeper ties, including reported multi-billion-dollar deals for AI computing capacity on SpaceX infrastructure. As SpaceX advances Starship flights, Starlink expansion, and ambitious Mars goals under Elon Musk, Google’s stake positions it to benefit from the commercialization of space.
For Alphabet, the windfall highlights how patient, forward-looking bets in transformative sectors can yield outsized rewards. While lockups temper short-term impact, the holding cements SpaceX as a cornerstone of Alphabet’s diversified portfolio in an era where aerospace, AI, and connectivity increasingly intersect. Investors will watch closely as restrictions lift and SpaceX’s public performance unfolds.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
