Investor's Corner
Tesla remains volatile despite international Model 3 ramp, analysts’ optimistic outlook for 2019
Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) saw a steep, over 12% dive on Friday amidst news of a new round of layoffs and Elon Musk’s rather cautious tone about the company’s profitability in the fourth quarter and Q1 2019. As trading opened on Tuesday, TSLA stock seemed as volatile as ever, briefly showing some recovery after the opening bell before dipping into the red soon after.
In a way, the behavior of Tesla stock on Friday (and this Tuesday as of writing) was a bit strange. Not long after the company shared Elon Musk’s email explaining his reasons behind the 7% layoffs, after all, a number of Wall Street analysts covering the electric car maker expressed an optimistic view on Tesla, particularly as the company is now aiming to start breaching the international market with the Model 3, its most disruptive vehicle to date.
During a segment on CNBC’s Squawk Box, for one, Oppenheimer senior research analyst Colin Rusch, who has a $418 price target on the company, noted that Tesla’s recent job cuts were unsurprising and a likely sign of optimization.
“It’s not a huge surprise to see this. This looks to us like a mix of a proactive move in terms of cutting costs, … but also a bit of cleanup on the kind of massive push to get the Model 3 out this year. You never want to see a growth company cutting staff like this, but we’re not overly concerned,” Rusch said.
In a note to investors, Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois, who has a $450 price target on TSLA, stated that the company’s reduced workforce suggests breakthroughs in productivity.
“Reducing headcount also suggests productivity gains. This is, in our view, (is) consistent with slower growth rates but mostly the scope to improve productivity and flow that we identified during our visit to the Fremont plant mid-November 2018,” the analyst said.
Baird analyst Ben Kallo, a longtime TSLA bull with a price target of $465 per share, noted that cost management would be crucial this 2019 as “Tesla transitions to its next phase of growth.” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who has a price target of $440 per share, stated that “Tesla will be able to emerge from the next 12 to 18 months” as an electric car maker that is stronger and more profitable.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Jed Dorsheimer, who has a $323 price target on TSLA, was more pronounced in his optimism for the company, stating that with the recent job cuts, “Tesla’s business is now set up for a more auspicious 2019.” Consumer Edge analyst Derek Glynn, who has a $350 price target on Tesla, noted that Elon Musk’s recent email suggested that “management is focused on achieving profitability each quarter after years of operating at significant losses.”
Former Tesla board member Steve Westly also took a similar stance, stating that the 7% job cuts are a sign that Elon Musk and Tesla’s management are taking the initiative to “right-size” the company and optimize it its more challenging, more ambitious future endeavors. This, according to Westly, gives the company a notable edge in the electric vehicle market.
“He is moving faster than anybody else, going global faster than anybody else, and today, Tesla is essentially the iPhone of the electric-car market. They’ve won the North American premium market race. The challenge now is to win the mass market, to go international. I think he is preparing the company to do that. I wouldn’t bet against him,” the former Tesla board member said.
That said, not everyone on Wall Street believes that Tesla’s recent job cuts bode well for the company. Citigroup analyst Itay Michaeli, who has a $284 price target on TSLA, mentioned in a note that the electric car maker’s lowered Q4 2018 guidance and 7% job cuts support the bear argument that the company’s stellar Q3 2018 results “weren’t sustainable.”
For now, Tesla is attempting to start deliveries of the Model 3 to two key international markets — Europe and China. Both territories present an important opportunity for the electric car maker, considering that Europe’s midsize sedan market is roughly twice as large as the United States.’ China’s electric car market, on the other hand, is the largest in the world. With Gigafactory 3 allowing Tesla to produce affordable variants of the Model 3 for the local market, the company’s electric sedan could prove to be a success in China.
As for Tesla’s upcoming competition this year, Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch notes that legacy automakers have some serious catching up to do.
“Let’s get realistic about what the competition looks like. I mean, people have been very excited about some of the vehicles coming out in 2018. One, those cars have been delayed. Two, the products haven’t been as exciting as people anticipated. We were just at the Detroit Auto Show this week, and we saw, you know, around ten EVs on the show floor, and none of them were particularly exciting,” the analyst said.
As of writing, Tesla stock is trading -1.04% at $299.12 per share.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just filed for the IPO everyone was waiting for
SpaceX filed its public S-1, revealing $18.7 billion in revenue and billions in losses.
SpaceX publicly filed its S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20, 2026, making its financial details available to the public for the first time ahead of what could be the largest IPO in history.
An S-1 is the formal document a company must submit to the SEC before going public. It includes audited financials, risk factors, business descriptions, and how the company plans to use the money it raises. Companies are required to file one before selling shares to the public, and it must be published at least 15 days before the investor roadshow begins. SpaceX had already submitted a confidential draft to the SEC in April, which allowed regulators to review the filing privately before it went public.
The S-1 reveals that SpaceX generated $18.7 billion in consolidated revenue in 2025, driven largely by its Starlink satellite internet division, which posted $11.4 billion in revenue, growing nearly 50% year over year. Despite that growth, the company lost about $4.9 billion in 2025 and has burned through more than $37 billion since its founding.
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
A significant portion of those losses trace back to xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, which was recently merged into SpaceX. SpaceX directed roughly 60% of its capital spending in 2025 to its AI division, totaling around $20 billion, yet that division lost billions and grew revenue by only about 22%.
SpaceX plans to list its Class A common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America leading the offering. The dual-class share structure means going public will not meaningfully reduce Musk’s control, as Class B shares he holds carry 10 votes per share compared to one vote for public Class A shares.
The company is targeting a raise of around $75 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO ever. The investor roadshow is reportedly planned for June 5.
Elon Musk
Tesla ditches India after years of broken promises
Tesla has ditched its plans to build a factory in India after years of failed negotiations.
Tesla’s long-running effort to establish a manufacturing presence in India is officially over. India’s Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy confirmed on May 19, 2026 that Tesla has informed authorities it will not proceed with a manufacturing facility in the country.
Tesla first signaled serious interest in India around 2021, when it began hiring local staff and lobbying the Indian government for lower import tariffs. The ask was straightforward: reduce duties enough for Tesla to test the market with imported vehicles before committing capital to a local factory. India’s position was equally firm, with an ask of Tesla to commit to manufacturing first, then receive tariff relief. Neither side moved, and the talks quietly collapsed.
Tesla to open first India experience center in Mumbai on July 15
India had offered a policy that would reduce import duties from 110% down to 15% on EVs priced above $35,000, provided companies committed at least $500 million toward local manufacturing investment within three years. Tesla declined to participate. The tariff standoff was only part of the problem. Analysts pointed to significant gaps in India’s local supply chain, inadequate industrial infrastructure, and a mismatch between Tesla’s premium pricing and the purchasing power of India’s automotive market as additional factors that made the investment difficult to justify.
First signs of an unraveling relationship came in April 2024, when Musk abruptly cancelled a planned trip to India where he was set to meet Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla’s market entry. By July 2024, Fortune reported that Tesla executives had stopped contacting Indian government officials entirely. The government at that point understood Tesla had capital constraints and no plans to invest.
The more fundamental issue is that Tesla’s existing factories are currently operating at approximately 60% capacity, making a commitment to building new manufacturing capacity in a new market difficult to defend to investors. Tesla will continue selling imported Model Y vehicles through its existing showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru, but local production is no longer part of the plan.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon just joined forces for one reason: Starlink is winning.
America’s three largest wireless carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, announced on On May 14, 2026 that they had agreed in principle to form a joint venture aimed at pooling their spectrum resources to expand satellite-based direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity across the United States in what can be seen as a direct response to SpaceX’s Starlink initiative. D2D, in plain terms, is technology that lets a standard smartphone connect directly to a satellite in orbit, the same way it connects to a cell tower, with no extra hardware required.
The alliance is widely seen as a means to slow Starlink’s rapid expansion in the satellite internet and mobile markets. SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile service launched commercially in July 2025 through a partnership with T-Mobile, starting with messaging before expanding to broadband data. SpaceX secured access to valuable wireless spectrum through its $17 billion deal with EchoStar, paving the way for significantly faster satellite-to-phone speeds.
SpaceX was not shy about its reaction. SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell responded on X: “Weeeelllll, I guess Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David.” SpaceX’s VP of Satellite Policy David Goldman went further, flagging potential antitrust concerns and asking whether the DOJ would even allow three dominant competitors to coordinate in a market where a new rival is actively entering.
Weeeelllll, I guess @Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David 🙂 https://t.co/5GzS752mxL
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) May 14, 2026
Financial analysts at LightShed Partners were blunt, saying the announcement showed the three carriers are “nervous,” and pointed to the timing: “You announce an agreement in principle when the point is the announcement, not the deal. The timing, weeks ahead of the SpaceX roadshow, was the point.”
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX’s next generation Starlink V2 satellites will deliver up to 100 times the data density of the current system, with custom silicon and phased array antennas enabling around 20 times the throughput of the first generation. The carriers’ JV, which has no definitive agreement, no financial structure, and no deployment timeline yet, will need to move quickly to matter.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is targeting a Nasdaq listing as early as June 12, aiming for what would be the largest IPO in history. With Starlink now serving over 9 million subscribers across 155 countries, holding 59 carrier partnerships globally, and now powering Air Force One, the carriers’ joint venture announcement landed at exactly the wrong time to look like anything other than a defensive move.
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