Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) closes out 2020 with a new bull: Masterlink Securities
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) officially has its newest bullish firm in Taiwan-based Masterlink Securities.
The firm launched its first ratings and price targets for Tesla stock on New Year’s Eve, which were listed as “Buy” and a hefty $750 price target to match. It is among the highest current price targets for TSLA, with the most robust being the $788 price target from JMP Securities analyst Joseph Osha.
Tesla rides into the new year with plenty of momentum on Wall Street. After hitting its 52-week high on the final day of the year with a quick spike to $703.74, it is a good sign of things to come for the company’s shareholders, especially those who got in early.
NEWS: Masterlink Securities initiates coverage on $TSLA with a Buy rating and a price target of $750. ?
— Sawyer Merritt ?? (@SawyerMerritt) December 31, 2020
The stock has traded as low as $70.10 in 2020, which early-year numbers would indicate that the company has experienced tremendous growth so far, and it has. Tesla has launched an offensive in China with its Giga Shanghai production plant that produces the Model 3, the most popular EV in the country this year.
On top of that, CEO Elon Musk has led the electric automaker into the realm of impossibility in 2020, which was a year that was trying for many industries, automotive being one of them. However, Tesla has continued to defy all odds and launch itself into the stratosphere of automotive legend. It will likely reach the 500,000 vehicle goal that it set before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the world, which is quite incredible, considering automotive sales are down a projected 15.5% compared to 2019, dBusiness said.
Only ten major automakers have been able to sustain growth in Q3 2020 compared to Q3 2019: Acura, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Kia, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Tesla, and Volvo. However, only of these companies could eclipse 17.3%: Alpha Romeo’s growth from 4,310 units in Q3 2019 to 5,056 units in Q3 2020, and Tesla. Tesla is the only company that managed to absolutely demolish the prior year’s Q3 sales numbers, seeing 154.7% growth compared to last year, GoodCarBadCar.com data shows.
Incredibly, Tesla’s Q4 2020 could be one for the ages. The company needed around 180,000 cars delivered to reach its goal, and early projections from some bullish analysts predict that Tesla could reach as high as 200,000 deliveries for the quarter alone. This would signify Tesla’s biggest quarter yet, and would likely send the stock soaring toward the $800 price mark.
Delivery numbers will be reported after the new year, and Tesla has done everything it can to close the year out strong. CEO Elon Musk announced on December 29 that every Tesla EV sold with completed paperwork during the last three days of the year would be subjected to a free, three-month trial of the company’s Full Self-Driving suite, which has become more robust and complex in 2020, leading the frontman to believe that his company will reach Level 5 autonomy by the end 0f 2021.
At the time of writing, TSLA shares were trading at $698.16.
Disclaimer: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.
Investor's Corner
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
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 Bloomberg. Shares 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.
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.
Investor's Corner
Tesla stock tumbles after earnings, one of its sharpest single-day declines
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
Investor's Corner
Google’s massive stake in SpaceX will shock you
In a striking revelation that underscores the lucrative crossover between Big Tech and space exploration, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, disclosed a massive $94.1 billion equity stake in SpaceX following the rocket company’s blockbuster initial public offering earlier this year.
The disclosure came in Alphabet’s quarterly filing, marking the first time the long-held private investment has been publicly valued at market prices. Google was an early backer, investing alongside Fidelity in 2015 with roughly $500-900 million at a time when SpaceX was valued around $12 billion.
That bet has delivered extraordinary returns, roughly a hundredfold, transforming a strategic play on satellite internet and launch capabilities into one of Alphabet’s largest assets.
Google, $GOOGL, has said they hold $94 billion in SpaceX, $SPCX, shares after IPO.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 23, 2026
Of the total holding, approximately $80 billion remains subject to short-term post-IPO lockup restrictions, preventing near-term sales. An additional $14.1 billion faces longer-term restrictions, extending into the third quarter of 2027. This structure limits immediate liquidity but protects against market volatility as SpaceX transitions into public trading.
The SpaceX position contributed significantly to gains in Alphabet’s broader investment portfolio, which also includes a major stake in AI leader Anthropic. Combined, these holdings helped drive nearly $100 billion in investment gains during the second quarter, providing a substantial boost to net income amid ongoing AI spending pressures.
Analysts view the disclosure as validation of Alphabet’s venture strategy beyond its core search and cloud businesses. The investment aligns with deeper ties, including reported multi-billion-dollar deals for AI computing capacity on SpaceX infrastructure. As SpaceX advances Starship flights, Starlink expansion, and ambitious Mars goals under Elon Musk, Google’s stake positions it to benefit from the commercialization of space.
For Alphabet, the windfall highlights how patient, forward-looking bets in transformative sectors can yield outsized rewards. While lockups temper short-term impact, the holding cements SpaceX as a cornerstone of Alphabet’s diversified portfolio in an era where aerospace, AI, and connectivity increasingly intersect. Investors will watch closely as restrictions lift and SpaceX’s public performance unfolds.