Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) can rebound with 10 turnaround ideas, according to a new note from Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
Tesla reported Earnings for Q4 and Full Year 2023 on Wednesday, and after what was widely considered to be a weak conference call, the stock dropped over 12 percent on Thursday.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush who has been routinely bullish on the stock, was one of the most vocal personalities on Wall Street yesterday as varying ideas surrounding the narrative of the Earnings Call circulated.
Ives called the call a “train wreck,” and talked about the lack of information Tesla reported during Earnings. There was no indication of what investors should expect in terms of margins or outlook in production.
Instead, Tesla stated it expected a “notable” drop in growth rate in 2024 as it gears up for its next-generation platform, which it plans to launch in the second half of 2025.
“This was 101 how to not to do a conference call,” Ives commented on Thursday morning. Wedbush removed Tesla stock from its “Best Ideas List” as well.
Tesla Can Rebound with These 10 Things: Wedbush
However, Ives is back with a note on Friday, which he shared with investors. According to the analyst, there are ten ways Tesla can turn around its stock:
- Announce a $10 Billion Share Buyback With Roughly $30 Billion of Cash on hand. Walk the walk, not just talk the talk and show confidence to investors
- Create an “X Holding” Structure That Will Include AI Initiatives (Dojo, Optimus, FSD) to give Musk More Control and could get him to ~25% voting level
- Stop the price cuts now and maintain margin leverage over other auto players
- Hold an AI Day before the summer timeframe so investors can better understand the goals for Dojo, Optimus, FSD
- Get outside capital for X/Twitter with assurances of no more Musk stock sales
- New comp package with the proxy to lock in Musk as CEO Through 2030, along with settling Delaware legal issue holding things up
- Hittable production/delivery timeline for Model 2 and sub $30k vehicle in 2025
- With Zach (former CFO) gone, conference calls have been horror shows; return to formal guidance and goalposts and make messaging changes on calls
- Do an aggressive AI acquisition spree and bring in outside capital to build out the AI component of Tesla…~$30 Billion of cash to fund deals
- Give long-term targets around AI revenue to the Tesla ecosystem. We believe Tesla could be the biggest AI company in the world around FSD, autonomous, Dojo, Optimus, robotaxis…give this key AI framework to the Street/investors
Several of the ideas Ives lists would clarify some skepticism investors may hold after the Earnings Call.
One of the more notable things to recognize on the list is the price cut narrative, which investors continue to focus on. While they are great for consumers, they put pressure on Tesla’s profits, which is why it has continued to be so strong for years.
Additionally, offering CEO Elon Musk a new comp package could alleviate pressure on the stock from his comments last week, where he said he would be “uncomfortable” moving Tesla into more development of AI without greater control.
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Ives reduced his price target on Tesla from $350 to $315 but still holds an ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock.
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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.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
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.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
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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