Investor's Corner
Tesla shareholders vote in favor of keeping Elon Musk as Chairman
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is keeping Elon Musk as chairman of its board. During Tesla’s 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting, which was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. PST, shareholders ultimately decided to allow Musk to stay as both CEO and chairman of Tesla’s board of directors.
The results of the vote come as a vote of confidence for Musk, who has battled online criticism on a heightened scale since Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call, where he refused to answer inquiries from Bernstein and RBC analysts due to the questions being “boring and boneheaded.” Apart from this, Musk also continues to battle a consistent stream of doubts about Tesla’s ability to meet its ever-elusive Model 3 production goals.
The challenge to Musk’s authority as chairman of Tesla’s board came in April, when shareholder Jing Zhao, who owns 12 shares of the company’s common stock, submitted a proposal calling for Musk’s removal from his chairman post. According to Zhao, Tesla’s growing size, as well as Musk’s commitments to SpaceX and The Boring Company, might cause “conflicts” down the road. Proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis supported Zhao’s proposal.
During the 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting, however, the initiative to remove Elon Musk as Tesla’s chairman came to an unsuccessful end, as investors opted to keep the serial tech entrepreneur at the head of the company by “more than a super majority vote.”
In a report on Tuesday, analysts from Needham & Co. stated that Tesla’s Annual Shareholder Meeting would ultimately be all about the Model 3’s production ramp rates. The firm, which has a “Hold” rating on Tesla stock, also stated that it expects Model 3 production to turn profitable by 2019. Needham analysts further indicated that Tesla should see a near-term benefit as it starts delivering the Model 3 Performance, which costs $78,000 with all options except Autopilot.
-->“Margins and average selling price should see some near-term benefit as Tesla starts delivering the Performance version of Model 3 (fully loaded at $78K), but in order to reach the target gross margin of about 25%, the Model 3 needs to sell all configurations including the base model, which won’t come until 2019 at the earliest. Tesla should be able to generate more than $10K/car it sold, and if Model 3 ramps well in the next few quarters, its cash flow will substantially increase.” the analysts wrote, according to a Barron’s report.
Tesla is currently attempting to hit a production rate of 5,000 Model 3 per week by the end of Q2 2018. While the compact electric car’s manufacturing has had its setbacks over the past few quarters, recent reports about the Model 3 line are starting to get more positive. In May alone, Tesla registered a record 18,000 new Model 3 VINs, a number that was matched only by the company’s production of the vehicle from mid-2017 to March 2018.
A leaked email from Elon Musk further revealed that the Model 3 line is now at a consistent rate of 3,500 vehicles per week. By the end of May, reports also emerged stating that Tesla is flying in six airplanes’ worth of new robots and equipment from Europe. These robots, which are reportedly set to be installed in Gigafactory 1, are expected to address further production bottlenecks in the Model 3 battery module line.
As of writing, Tesla stock is trading up 0.16% at $291.14 per share during after-hours trading.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
-->
Tesla bear Michael Burry got blunt with his beliefs over the company’s valuation, which he called “ridiculously overvalued” in a newsletter to subscribers this past weekend.
“Tesla’s market capitalization is ridiculously overvalued today and has been for a good long time,” Burry, who was the inspiration for the movie The Big Short, and was portrayed by Christian Bale.
Burry went on to say, “As an aside, the Elon cult was all-in on electric cars until competition showed up, then all-in on autonomous driving until competition showed up, and now is all-in on robots — until competition shows up.”
Tesla bear Michael Burry ditches bet against $TSLA, says ‘media inflated’ the situation
For a long time, Burry has been skeptical of Tesla, its stock, and its CEO, Elon Musk, even placing a $530 million bet against shares several years ago. Eventually, Burry’s short position extended to other supporters of the company, including ARK Invest.
-->Tesla has long drawn skepticism from investors and more traditional analysts, who believe its valuation is overblown. However, the company is not traded as a traditional stock, something that other Wall Street firms have recognized.
While many believe the company has some serious pull as an automaker, an identity that helped it reach the valuation it has, Tesla has more than transformed into a robotics, AI, and self-driving play, pulling itself into the realm of some of the most recognizable stocks in tech.
Burry’s Scion Asset Management has put its money where its mouth is against Tesla stock on several occasions, but the firm has not yielded positive results, as shares have increased in value since 2020 by over 115 percent. The firm closed in May.
In 2020, it launched its short position, but by October 2021, it had ditched that position.
Tesla has had a tumultuous year on Wall Street, dipping significantly to around the $220 mark at one point. However, it rebounded significantly in September, climbing back up to the $400 region, as it currently trades at around $430.
-->It closed at $430.14 on Monday.
Investor's Corner
Mizuho keeps Tesla (TSLA) “Outperform” rating but lowers price target
As per the Mizuho analyst, upcoming changes to EV incentives in the U.S. and China could affect Tesla’s unit growth more than previously expected.
Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh lowered Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) price target to $475 from $485, citing potential 2026 EV subsidy cuts in the U.S. and China that could pressure deliveries. The firm maintained its Outperform rating for the electric vehicle maker, however.
As per the Mizuho analyst, upcoming changes to EV incentives in the U.S. and China could affect Tesla’s unit growth more than previously expected. The U.S. accounted for roughly 37% of Tesla’s third-quarter 2025 sales, while China represented about 34%, making both markets highly sensitive to policy shifts. Potential 50% cuts to Chinese subsidies and reduced U.S. incentives affected the firm’s outlook.
With those pressures factored in, the firm now expects Tesla to deliver 1.75 million vehicles in 2026 and 2 million in 2027, slightly below consensus estimates of 1.82 million and 2.15 million, respectively. The analyst was cautiously optimistic, as near-term pressure from subsidies is there, but the company’s long-term tech roadmap remains very compelling.
Despite the revised target, Mizuho remained optimistic on Tesla’s long-term technology roadmap. The firm highlighted three major growth drivers into 2027: the broader adoption of Full Self-Driving V14, the expansion of Tesla’s Robotaxi service, and the commercialization of Optimus, the company’s humanoid robot.
“We are lowering TSLA Ests/PT to $475 with Potential BEV headwinds in 2026E. We believe into 2026E, US (~37% of TSLA 3Q25 sales) EV subsidy cuts and China (34% of TSLA 3Q25 sales) potential 50% EV subsidy cuts could be a headwind to EV deliveries.
-->“We are now estimating TSLA deliveries for 2026/27E at 1.75M/2.00M (slightly below cons. 1.82M/2.15M). We see some LT drivers with FSD v14 adoption for autonomous, robotaxi launches, and humanoid robots into 2027 driving strength,” the analyst noted.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) has landed an elusive “must own” status from Wall Street firm Melius, according to a new note released early this week.
Analyst Rob Wertheimer said Tesla will lead the charge in world-changing tech, given the company’s focus on self-driving, autonomy, and Robotaxi. In a note to investors, Wertheimer said “the world is about to change, dramatically,” because of the advent of self-driving cars.
He looks at the industry and sees many potential players, but the firm says there will only be one true winner:
“Our point is not that Tesla is at risk, it’s that everybody else is.”
The major argument is that autonomy is nearing a tipping point where years of chipping away at the software and data needed to develop a sound, safe, and effective form of autonomous driving technology turn into an avalanche of progress.
Wertheimer believes autonomy is a $7 trillion sector,” and in the coming years, investors will see “hundreds of billions in value shift to Tesla.”
A lot of the major growth has to do with the all-too-common “butts in seats” strategy, as Wertheimer believes that only a fraction of people in the United States have ridden in a self-driving car. In Tesla’s regard, only “tens of thousands” have tried Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving (Supervised) version, which is v14.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2 – Full Review, the Good and the Bad
When it reaches a widespread rollout and more people are able to experience Tesla Full Self-Driving v14, he believes “it will shock most people.”
Citing things like Tesla’s massive data pool from its vehicles, as well as its shift to end-to-end neural nets in 2021 and 2022, as well as the upcoming AI5 chip, which will be put into a handful of vehicles next year, but will reach a wider rollout in 2027, Melius believes many investors are not aware of the pace of advancement in self-driving.
Tesla’s lead in its self-driving efforts is expanding, Wertheimer says. The company is making strategic choices on everything from hardware to software, manufacturing, and overall vehicle design. He says Tesla has left legacy automakers struggling to keep pace as they still rely on outdated architectures and fragmented supplier systems.
Tesla shares are up over 6 percent at 10:40 a.m. on the East Coast, trading at around $416.
Tesla sees sharp November rebound in China as Model Y demand surges
Tesla bear gets blunt with beliefs over company valuation
