Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) gets new record price target from Piper Sandler
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received another raised price target from investment firm Piper Sandler to $2,400 from $2,322 following the electric automaker’s positive Q2 Earnings Call. It is the highest price target currently for TSLA stock.
Sandler analyst Alexander Potter raised the firm’s price target by $88 and reiterated an Overweight rating for Tesla’s shares.
After the Q2 2020 Earnings Call solidified that Tesla had secured its fourth consecutive profitable quarter, Potter stated that the electric automaker “deserves ‘must own’ status.” Four straight quarters of profitability is a record for Tesla, and its impressive performance throughout the first six months of 2020 was unheard of given the circumstances.
Piper Sandler raises TSLA price target to $2,400, calls it a "must own" name & considers Q2 results "undeniably impressive". pic.twitter.com/FzYW3w71It
— Tesla Facts (@truth_tesla) July 23, 2020
Company CEO Elon Musk stated that he was thankful for all of the hard work Tesla employees put in throughout the first half of the year. Challenges ranged from COVID-19 enforced shutdowns, to ramping a new vehicle, which is rarely profitable during its first few months of production.
However, Tesla managed to overcome a variety of obstacles, and it is the only automaker to remain profitable in terms of Year-over-Year margins so far. Other car companies have experienced drops in demand and substantial capital loss because of the current economic and social situation.
Even though Tesla benefited from credit-related revenue in Q2, Potter still calls the company’s performance “undeniably impressive,” especially considering the Silicon Valley-based company could reach or even exceed a yearly goal of 500,000 deliveries.
With Tesla continuing to develop a series of new self-driving features that are due to roll out within the coming months, along with the market share “reflecting,” Potter doesn’t believe anyone should sell TSLA shares at the current time. In a note to investors, the Sandler analyst said he “can’t envision” selling shares with the upcoming developments.
Tesla is set to release a “feature complete” version of its Full Self-Driving suite within the coming months. Currently, the only FSD suite characteristic that is missing is “Autosteer on City Streets,” which will allow owners of FSD-capable Tesla electric vehicles to change lanes and navigate through tight, fast-moving city environments without much intervention.
Tesla is currently operating with two functioning production facilities in Fremont, California, and Shanghai, China. The company announced yesterday that it has already started building its next U.S. facility, which will be located in Austin, Texas. The company also plans to handle the European market with Giga Berlin in Brandenburg, Germany, which will open in July 2021.
At the time of writing, TSLA stock was trading at $1,598.68, up 6.35%. The stock has risen over 360% so far in 2020. It traded at $430.26 on the first trading day of the year.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
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.
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.
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.
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