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Tesla’s Full Year, Q4 2018 financial report and earnings call set for January 30

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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has announced the date for the release of its Full Year and Q4 2018 financial results report; as well as its following earnings call. In a recent announcement on its Investor Relations page, Tesla stated that it would be posting its financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year ending December 31, 2018 after the market closes on Wednesday, January 30, 2019.

The company would be issuing a brief advisory with a link to its Q4 and Full Year 2018 Update Letter after Wednesday’s close, which would be accessible from Tesla’s Investor Relations website. A live Q&A session is set for 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time (5:30 p.m. Eastern Time), to discuss the electric car and energy company’s financial and business results and outlook.

Tesla’s Q4 and Full Year 2018 earnings call comes at a time after the company completed yet another record quarter in terms of Model 3 production and deliveries. During Q4 2018, Tesla manufactured a total of 86,555 electric cars including 61,394 Model 3 and 25,161 Model S and X — an increase of 8% compared to the company’s prior all-time high in the third quarter. Tesla’s deliveries also showed an 8% increase from Q3 2018’s ATH, with a total of 90,700 vehicles comprised of 63,150 Model 3, 13,500 Model S, and 14,050  Model X. By the time the fourth quarter ended, 1,010 Model 3 and 1,897 Model S and X were in transit to customers.

Tesla’s production and deliveries for the full year also reached new heights. The company delivered a total of 245,240 vehicles, comprised of 145,846 Model 3 and 99,394 Model S and X over 2018. Putting these numbers in perspective, the electric car maker delivered almost as many vehicles in 2018 as the company did since it started producing the original Tesla Roadster more than 10 years ago.

Since ending the fourth quarter on a strong note, Tesla has been showing signs that it is ready to bring the Model 3 to the international market. In January alone, Tesla registered more than 39,000 Model 3 VINs that were designated for foreign territories. Reports from local European media have also suggested that Tesla is aiming to ship 3,000 Model 3 per week to the region. In China, the Model 3 configurator has been opened to reservation holders, with expected deliveries for the vehicle starting on March.  

In a recent email to employees, Elon Musk noted hinted at another GAAP profitable quarter. Seemingly setting expectations early, Musk pointed out that the fourth quarter’s profit would likely not be as much as Q3 2018.

“In Q3 last year, we were able to make a 4% profit. While small by most standards, I would still consider this our first meaningful profit in the 15 years since we created Tesla. However, that was in part the result of preferentially selling higher priced Model 3 variants in North America. In Q4, preliminary, unaudited results indicate that we again made a GAAP profit, but less than Q3,” Musk said.

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Tesla is facing yet another challenging year this 2019, as the company is expected to introduce and produce some of its most ambitious projects to date. Among these are the production of the $35,000 Standard Range Model 3, the introduction of the Model Y, the manufacturing ramp of the Solar Roof tiles, and the possible start of production for the Tesla Semi. Updates on other vehicles such as the Tesla Roadster and the Tesla pickup truck are also expected to be held sometime this year.

Tesla’s announcement for its Q4 and Full Year 2018 earnings call can 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

SpaceX gets an absolutely crazy price target after rough IPO

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) got an absolutely crazy price target rating from Raymond James after the company experienced a tough first few weeks following its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Despite the tumultuous start, SpaceX has plenty of believers, and the company’s massively successful Starship launch last Friday, its 13th test flight of the massive rocket, went so smoothly that Raymond James analysts pushed its price target on the company to roughly 7 times its current trading level.

SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before

The firm officially put a “Strong Buy” rating and an $800 price target on the stock. It currently trades at around $113. Its all-time high is $225.64, reaching this trading level shortly after shares first went public.

Raymond James’ price target is tied to the firm’s confidence after Starship’s 13th test flight. Analysts at the firm said it was an incremental step that reduces engineering risks, citing the widely successful heat shield test that CEO Elon Musk recently detailed, the smooth deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, and a successful in-space engine relight.

SpaceX also managed to see Starship splash down safely in the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy Booster fell down to the Gulf of America with no incidents.

It is interesting to see these launches have such a tremendous impact on the stock and what investors think of it. After SpaceX initially delayed the Starship launch last week, shares fell tremendously. Most probably did not realize that the stand-down is a standard practice, especially if everything is not perfect.

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The mission was initially aborted due to an issue with Raptor engines. This was resolved, and Starship launched last Friday after another delay on Thursday, which was caused by weather.

Now that analysts have seen what SpaceX launches are capable of and how impressive the feat is, firms are adjusting their price targets accordingly, making it known that they have high expectations for the space exploration company.

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SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before

SpaceX’s Starship flew successfully Friday, landing both stages and deploying its first Starlink V3 satellites.

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Starship’s thirteenth test flight delivered exactly what SpaceX needed with a clean liftoff, two successful stage recoveries, and the first real payload the vehicle has ever carried to space. Booster 20 and Ship 40 lifted off at 5:51 p.m. CT from Starbase, and by the time the mission wrapped roughly an hour later, both halves of the rocket had done exactly what they were supposed to do.

Booster 20 separated from Ship 40 a few minutes into the flight and stuck a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about six minutes after liftoff. That is a meaningful turnaround from Flight 12 in May, when the booster lost several engines during its boostback burn before a hard water landing attempt.


Starship 40’s performance was arguably the bigger win. The vehicle deployed the first 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever carried, then flew a suborbital arc to a landing in the Indian Ocean that SpaceX commentator Dan Huot called the company’s softest splashdown yet. “This is a dream scenario for this team that’s trying to get this heat shield data,” Huot said on the live broadcast, according to Space.com’s live coverage. “I’m a little over the moon right now. Wow. Lucky number 13.”

Unlike the mass simulators SpaceX flew on Flight 12, these were production Starlink V3 satellites, meant to extend solar arrays and antennas and attempt to link with the broader constellation before reentering minutes later. Getting real hardware through a full deploy sequence on only the second flight of the V3 generation keeps Starship on schedule for the payload work NASA is counting on for future Artemis lunar landings.

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 25, 2026

The flight also arrives at a moment when SpaceX needed a win. SPCX has traded below its $135 IPO price since mid-July, as Teslarati reported when the mission slipped to Friday, and short interest has climbed to roughly a third of the tradable float. A clean flight will not fix a balance sheet, but it does answer the one question SpaceX absolutely needed answered this week: whether the fixes made after the July 16 abort would hold up under real flight conditions. They did, on both stages, on the first try after the redesign.

SpaceX has not set a target date for Flight 14, though the company has said it wants to push toward an orbital attempt on the next mission. After Friday, that goal looks a lot more within reach.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings

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A red Tesla Roadster driving around a turn
(Credit: Tesla)

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 BloombergShares 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.

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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.

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