Investor's Corner
Tesla’s biggest bear sets Q3 delivery forecast at 223k
Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) biggest bear is, without a doubt, Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research. Johnson has been the most outspoken critic of the electric automaker for several years, holding extremely low price targets and never shying away from his very public sell rating. Earlier today, GLJ Research released its Q3 2021 delivery forecast at 223,000 vehicles, which is slightly above consensus estimates.
Johnson set his target for Q3 deliveries at 223,000 cars, which would be slightly more than a 10% increase in deliveries compared to Q2 2021. Tesla delivered 201,250 electric cars in Q2, despite global supply chain and logistics challenges. 99% of the deliveries comprised the Model 3 and Model Y, as the Model S Plaid was just beginning deliveries, and the Model X has been pushed back to 2022 for most orderers.
Compared to other analysts, Johnson’s prediction is relatively in line, with the exception of some bullish $TSLA analysts who have slated Q3 deliveries at a slightly higher than consensus estimate. For example, Piper Sandler and RBC Capital Markets raised their forecasts for Q3 to about 233,000 vehicles, insinuating an over 14% growth in deliveries for the electric automaker compared to Q2. Piper Sandler analyst Alex Potter stated that the firm believes Q3 will be Tesla’s strongest-ever quarter, increasing its 2021 Full Year outlook for the company from 846,000 to 894,000.
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Johnson’s past synopsis for Tesla has been that the automaker has no advantage in batteries, their sales are declining, and in EV-heavy regions like Norway, the company has been dominated by automakers like Volkswagen. In fact, Tesla’s battery advantage has been outlined in several ways, especially in its ability to steer clear of parts shortages. Batteries are likely the biggest bottleneck presented to Tesla, as it has inhibited the company from expanding its product line with vehicles like the Semi and the next-gen Roadster. However, the available batteries are being funneled to Tesla’s mass-market Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the Model S, which only accounts for a few thousand Tesla sales every quarter.
While battery constraints have halted Tesla’s launch of the Semi and Roadster programs, they have surged the automaker to have the notorious reputation of having the longest-range EVs on the market currently. While Lucid has overtaken Tesla in range ratings from the EPA, Lucid has not yet launched a vehicle, although deliveries are expected to begin later this year.
In terms of Johnson’s claim that Tesla sales are declining, this is not accurate. Tesla has not seen a decline in delivery statistics since Q1 2019, when the automaker delivered approximately 63,000 cars. In Q4 2018, Tesla delivered 90,300 vehicles. Since then, Tesla has seen consistent increases in delivery statistics.
Finally, Norway has been a hotspot of Tesla’s, unlike Johnson’s claims of domination by other companies. In August, Tesla overtook Volkswagen and Ford in the region. Norway has among the highest concentration of EV drivers globally, and the final ICE sale is expected to take place in mid-2022, according to recent projections.
Johnson is ranked 7,420 out of 7,671 analysts on TipRanks. He has a $67 price target on TSLA with a “Sell” rating, an average return of -7.1%, and a success rate of 54%.
At the time of writing, TSLA was down 1.55% at $779.05.
Disclosure: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with tips! Email us at tips@teslarati.com, or you can email me directly at joey@teslarati.com.
There are a lot of Tesla bulls out there who have astronomical expectations for the company, especially as its arm of reach has gone well past automotive and energy and entered artificial intelligence and robotics.
However, some of the most bullish Tesla investors believe the company could become worth $100 trillion, and CEO Elon Musk does not believe that number is completely out of the question, even if it sounds almost ridiculous.
To put that number into perspective, the top ten most valuable companies in the world — NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, Meta, Saudi Aramco, Broadcom, and Tesla — are worth roughly $26 trillion.
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Cathie Wood of ARK Invest believes the number is reasonable considering Tesla’s long-reaching industry ambitions:
“…in the world of AI, what do you have to have to win? You have to have proprietary data, and think about all the proprietary data he has, different kinds of proprietary data. Tesla, the language of the road; Neuralink, multiomics data; nobody else has that data. X, nobody else has that data either. I could see $100 trillion. I think it’s going to happen because of convergence. I think Tesla is the leading candidate [for $100 trillion] for the reason I just said.”
Musk said late last year that all of his companies seem to be “heading toward convergence,” and it’s started to come to fruition. Tesla invested in xAI, as revealed in its Q4 Earnings Shareholder Deck, and SpaceX recently acquired xAI, marking the first step in the potential for a massive umbrella of companies under Musk’s watch.
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Now that it is happening, it seems Musk is even more enthusiastic about a massive valuation that would swell to nearly four-times the value of the top ten most valuable companies in the world currently, as he said on X, the idea of a $100 trillion valuation is “not impossible.”
It’s not impossible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2026
Tesla is not just a car company. With its many projects, including the launch of Robotaxi, the progress of the Optimus robot, and its AI ambitions, it has the potential to continue gaining value at an accelerating rate.
Musk’s comments show his confidence in Tesla’s numerous projects, especially as some begin to mature and some head toward their initial stages.
Elon Musk
Tesla director pay lawsuit sees lawyer fees slashed by $100 million
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
The Delaware Supreme Court has cut more than $100 million from a legal fee award tied to a shareholder lawsuit challenging compensation paid to Tesla directors between 2017 and 2020.
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
Delaware Supreme Court trims legal fees
As noted in a Bloomberg Law report, the case targeted pay granted to Tesla directors, including CEO Elon Musk, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Kimbal Musk, and Rupert Murdoch. The Delaware Chancery Court had awarded $176 million to the plaintiffs. Tesla’s board must also return stock options and forego years worth of pay.
As per Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. in an opinion for the Delaware Supreme Court’s full five-member panel, however, the decision of the Delaware Chancery Court to award $176 million to a pension fund’s law firm “erred by including in its financial benefit analysis the intrinsic value” of options being returned by Tesla’s board.
The justices then reduced the fee award from $176 million to $70.9 million. “As we measure it, $71 million reflects a reasonable fee for counsel’s efforts and does not result in a windfall,” Chief Justice Seitz wrote.
Other settlement terms still intact
The Supreme Court upheld the settlement itself, which requires Tesla’s board to return stock and options valued at up to $735 million and to forgo three years of additional compensation worth about $184 million.
Tesla argued during oral arguments that a fee award closer to $70 million would be appropriate. Interestingly enough, back in October, Justice Karen L. Valihura noted that the $176 award was $60 million more than the Delaware judiciary’s budget from the previous year. This was quite interesting as the case was “settled midstream.”
The lawsuit was brought by a pension fund on behalf of Tesla shareholders and focused exclusively on director pay during the 2017–2020 period. The case is separate from other high-profile compensation disputes involving Elon Musk.
Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call: The most important points
Executives, including CEO Elon Musk, discussed how the company is positioning itself for growth across vehicles, energy, AI, and robotics despite near-term pressures from tariffs, pricing, and macro conditions.
Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call highlighted improving margins, record energy performance, expanding autonomy efforts, and a sharp acceleration in AI and robotics investments.
Executives, including CEO Elon Musk, discussed how the company is positioning itself for growth across vehicles, energy, AI, and robotics despite near-term pressures from tariffs, pricing, and macro conditions.
Key takeaways
Tesla reported sequential improvement in automotive gross margins excluding regulatory credits, rising from 15.4% to 17.9%, supported by favorable regional mix effects despite a 16% decline in deliveries. Total gross margin exceeded 20.1%, the highest level in more than two years, even with lower fixed-cost absorption and tariff impacts.
The energy business delivered standout results, with revenue reaching nearly $12.8 billion, up 26.6% year over year. Energy gross profit hit a new quarterly record, driven by strong global demand and high deployments of MegaPack and Powerwall across all regions, as noted in a report from The Motley Fool.
Tesla also stated that paid Full Self-Driving customers have climbed to nearly 1.1 million worldwide, with about 70% having purchased FSD outright. The company has now fully transitioned FSD to a subscription-based sales model, which should create a short-term margin headwind for automotive results.
Free cash flow totaled $1.4 billion for the quarter. Operating expenses rose by $500 million sequentially as well.
Production shifts, robotics, and AI investment
Musk further confirmed that Model S and Model X production is expected to wind down next quarter, and plans are underway to convert Fremont’s S/X line into an Optimus robot factory with a capacity of one million units.
Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet has surpassed 500 vehicles, operating across the Bay Area and Austin, with Musk noting a rapid monthly expansion pace. He also reiterated that CyberCab production is expected to begin in April, following a slow initial S-curve ramp before scaling beyond other vehicle programs.
Looking ahead, Tesla expects its capital expenditures to exceed $20 billion next year, thanks to the company’s operations across its six factories, the expansion of its fleet expansion, and the ramp of its AI compute. Additional investments in AI chips, compute infrastructure, and future in-house semiconductor manufacturing were discussed but are not included in the company’s current CapEx guidance.
More importantly, Tesla ended the year with a larger backlog than in recent years. This is supported by record deliveries in smaller international markets and stronger demand across APAC and EMEA. Energy backlog remains strong globally as well, though Tesla cautioned that margin pressure could emerge from competition, policy uncertainty, and tariffs.
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