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Here’s what Tesla owner-investors will be asking Elon Musk today

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During Tesla’s upcoming Q4 and Full Year 2018 earnings call this Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. PT (5:30 p.m. ET), the electric car maker would be taking questions from retail investors that are aggregated from Say, a startup that creates and develops investor communication tools.

Over the past weeks, Tesla’s retail investors have submitted and voted on questions that they wish to be discussed in the company’s upcoming earnings call. After collecting the shareholder inquiries on its website, Say would be delivering them to Tesla’s investor relations department. In a statement to Bloomberg Law, a Tesla spokesperson has confirmed that the company would indeed be answering some questions from retail investors.

The Say campaign appears to be quite popular among shareholders. So far, over 250 inquiries have been posted by investors representing more than $50 million worth of TSLA shares. Among the most popular questions for the company involve Tesla’s customer service issues, Model 3’s annual targets, and a possible 2170 battery update for the Model S and X. The inquiries are vetted as well, since Say only allows verified Tesla shareholders to vote and submit questions. 

Here’s the Top 5 questions from Say’s Tesla Q4 earnings page. 

  • Owners, many of them with large followings online, are becoming very vocal about Tesla’s worsening customer service experience with delivery, service, and repair. This has a severe impact on sales and returning sales. What are you doing to change this growing negative reputation?
  • How are feeling about demand right now across the product line? Is 500k-700k units at ~$42k ASP still a realistic annual target for Model 3, even considering the impact of Model Y on demand? Do you continue to see S/X ~100k annually?
  • If and when will Tesla switch Model S & X to 2170 battery cells? What percent range improvement do you expect?
  • Can you please share an update on Full Self Driving and Tesla Network development? When will customers start to see FSD features? What’s a best case timeline for the Tesla Network to go live?
  • Where will the Tesla Semi & Model Y be produced? Can you share a timeline on the expected production ramp of these vehicles?

This would not be the first time for Tesla to take a question from a retail investor. Last May, Elon Musk courted Wall Street’s ire after he dismissed a couple of analysts, dubbing their inquiries as “boring” and “boneheaded.” Instead, Musk opted to take questions from retail investor Galileo Russell, a retail investor who hosts a YouTube channel called HyperChange TV. Rusell’s inquiries, which were also compiled from the Tesla community, were appreciated by Musk, who proceeded to give a notable amount of updates on the company’s upcoming projects. Ultimately, Galileo and Say would end up working together in the development of the question platform that would be used in Tesla’s earnings call later today.

In a statement to Teslarati, Galileo shared some questions that he hopes Tesla would address in its Q4 and Full Year 2018 earnings call.

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“I’m so happy Tesla has chosen to take retail questions from SAY. The top questions surrounding Tesla’s worsening Net Promoter Scores & customer service pinpoint exactly what I want to know. What is Tesla doing to address its biggest weakness? Additionally, Rob’s question from Tesla Daily (currently #2) about Model 3 demand at maturity, will give us clarity on normalized demand for the car now that it has been available for more than a year.” 

Ultimately, Tesla appears to be set on democratizing its process of communicating its earnings to shareholders, the media, as well as institutional investors. This is yet another step away from convention, considering that earnings calls usually feature inquiries from Wall Street analysts and the occasional member of the media. By supporting Say’s campaign, electric car maker is all but ensuring that its retail investors would be able to ask inquiries that are relevant and pertinent to the Tesla community as a whole.

if any, Tesla’s support for the retail investors’ questions would most definitely make today’s earnings call the last thing from “boring.”

Tesla is set to release its Q4 and Full Year 2018 financial results after markets close today. Following the release of its Q4 and full-year 2018 financial results, Tesla will be holding its earnings call, which will begin at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time (5:30 p.m. Eastern Time).

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The full list of questions submitted by TSLA retail investors in Say’s platform could be accessed here.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’

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Credit: MarcoRP | X

Tesla short seller Michael Burry, the subject of the film “The Big Short,” where he was portrayed by Steve Carell, has revealed he has opened a new bet against the stock.

In a new update to his Substack newsletter in a post titled “Trading Post June 30, 2026,” Burry revealed a new set of bets against Tesla, Caterpillar, NVIDIA, Applied Materials Inc., and the iShares Semiconductor ETF.

In regard to Tesla, Burry wrote:

“And finally I shorted Tesla at 416.22. Happy it jumped back to this level.”

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This means Burry likely opened his new short position after the company’s recent rally on Wall Street, which saw Tesla shares sink in mid-May, only to recover to well over the $400 mark. Currently, shares trade at around $427.

The company saw a big Tuesday as shares climbed considerably, over 10 percent. The size of the Tesla short was not provided, nor did Burry give any information on the position’s structure, the number of shares, dollar value, or whether options were used in the short.

The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building

Over the years, Burry has been one of the more vocal critics of Tesla, calling its share price “media inflated,” and saying it was “ridiculously overvalued” as recently as December.

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The company has largely transitioned away from being known as an automotive company and instead is much more widely regarded as an AI play, mostly due to its Full Self-Driving efforts, Optimus robot development, and data collection related to both.

This has not pulled those skeptics away from being vocal about their distaste for how Tesla is valued, but there’s no denying that the company is a global force in many things, including sustainable energy, automotive, and AI.

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Investor's Corner

SpaceX gets initial stock coverage from Tesla’s biggest bull

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SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12
SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12 (Credit: SpaceX)

Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.

“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”

Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12

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Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.

It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”

Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.

There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:

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“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”

SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst

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elon musk phone
Photo: Boss Hunting.com.au

For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.

Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.

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It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.

Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.

The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.

Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.

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The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.

SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.

There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.

The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.

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