Investor's Corner
Top 15 questions Tesla investors want answered during the Cyber Roundup 2022
Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) upcoming annual shareholding meeting is quite unique. Based on trademark filings from the company and its scheduled livestream on YouTube, Tesla seems to be rebranding its annual meeting of stockholders as the “Cyber Roundup.” Needless to say, the excitement surrounding the meeting is notable.
Tesla’s annual shareholder meetings typically involve the company and its stockholders voting on a number of topics, from proposals and ongoing programs to the members of the board of directors. But after the voting is over, Tesla typically engages in an extensive question and answer portion where executives such as CEO Elon Musk address concerns and inquiries from several shareholders.
Similar to the company’s quarterly earnings calls, Tesla is also using investor communication platform Say to gather a number of questions that the company may address in the Cyber Roundup. Following are the Top 15 questions that Tesla investors wish to be addressed in the 2022 annual shareholder meeting.
- How does Tesla intend to utilize cash in the coming few years? Will Tesla increase CAPEX, share buybacks, dividends, or acquisitions?
- How many factories are necessary to achieve a long-term target of 20 million vehicles per year?
- When the Cybertruck pricing is released, will all who ordered before it was taken down be grandfathered in or have to reconfigure? When will pricing be released?
- How is Tesla viewing the geopolitical risk between the US and China?
- What is the real estate strategy for Superchargers and Tesla restaurant locations across the US?
- With peak inflation behind us, are you now seeing recession as a challenge sometime in 2023? If yes, beyond layoffs, how is Tesla preparing for it?
- When will the Semi be available?
- What impacts will the upcoming EV tax credit for 2023 have on the demand and pricing of Tesla vehicles?
- Is the new Master Plan ready What will Tesla focus on for the next 5 to 10 years?
- When will 4680 output match your original yield and velocity (daily output) targets?
- When can we see the final design/features for Cybertruck, Semi, & Roadster, and when will they each target 1st production deliveries?
- Does Tesla have plans to produce a home HVAC system? What is the timeline for Tesla HVAC, and what are the limiting factors for production?
- Is it looking likely that we’ll see a working prototype of Optimus at AI Day 2? Any idea of the timetable from prototype to first practical use, either in-house or commercially?
- Is there a point within the next 2-3 years, given the potential cash generation incoming, where you could see Tesla start buying back shares and/or issue a dividend?
- Have you confirmed supply for 2023’s planned production?
Prior to Tesla’s move to Texas, the company typically holds its annual meeting of stockholders in California, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. With Gigafactory Texas now being Tesla’s new headquarters, however, it makes sense for the electric vehicle maker to hold some of its most important events on the complex. The moniker “Cyber Roundup,” if any, definitely fits Tesla’s new Texas roots.
The full list of questions that Tesla shareholders have submitted on Say can be accessed here.
Disclaimer: I am long TSLA.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Investor's Corner
Tesla analyst teases self-driving dominance in new note: ‘It’s not even close’
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Investor's Corner
Tesla price target boost from its biggest bear is 95% below its current level
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) just got a price target boost from its biggest bear, Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research, who raised his expected trading level to one that is 95 percent lower than its current trading level.
Johnson pushed his Tesla price target from $19.05 to $25.28 on Wednesday, while maintaining the ‘Sell’ rating that has been present on the stock for a long time. GLJ has largely been recognized as the biggest skeptic of Elon Musk’s company, being particularly critical of the automotive side of things.
Tesla has routinely been called out by Johnson for negative delivery growth, what he calls “weakening demand,” and price cuts that have occurred in past years, all pointing to them as desperate measures to sell its cars.
Johnson has also said that Tesla is extremely overvalued and is too reliant on regulatory credits for profitability. Other analysts on the bullish side recognize Tesla as a company that is bigger than just its automotive side.
Many believe it is a leader in autonomous driving, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, who believes Tesla will have a widely successful 2026, especially if it can come through on its targets and schedules for Robotaxi and Cybercab.
Justifying the price target this week, Johnson said that the revised valuation is based on “reality rather than narrative.” Tesla has been noted by other analysts and financial experts as a stock that trades on narrative, something Johnson obviously disagrees with.
Dan Nathan, a notorious skeptic of the stock, turned bullish late last year, recognizing the company’s shares trade on “technicals and sentiment.” He said, “From a trading perspective, it looks very interesting.”
Tesla bear turns bullish for two reasons as stock continues boost
Johnson has remained very consistent with this sentiment regarding Tesla and his beliefs regarding its true valuation, and has never shied away from putting his true thoughts out there.
Tesla shares closed at $431.40 today, about 95 percent above where Johnson’s new price target lies.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets price target bump, citing growing lead in self-driving
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock received a price target update from Pierre Ferragu of Wall Street firm New Street Research, citing the company’s growing lead in self-driving and autonomy.
On Tuesday, Ferragu bumped his price target from $520 to $600, stating that the consensus from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was that Tesla’s lead in autonomy has been sustained, is growing, and sits at a multiple-year lead over its competitors.
CES 2026 validates Tesla’s FSD strategy, but there’s a big lag for rivals: analyst
“The signal from Vegas is loud and clear,” the analyst writes. “The industry isn’t catching up to Tesla; it is actively validating Tesla’s strategy…just with a 12-year lag.”
The note shows that the company’s prowess in vehicle autonomy is being solidified by lagging competitors that claim to have the best method. The only problem is that Tesla’s Vision-based approach, which it adopted back in 2022 with the Model 3 and Model Y initially, has been proven to be more effective than competitors’ approach, which utilizes other technology, such as LiDAR and sensors.
Currently, Tesla shares are sitting at around $433, as the company’s stock price closed at $432.96 on Tuesday afternoon.
Ferragu’s consensus on Tesla shares echoes that of other Wall Street analysts who are bullish on the company’s stock and position within the AI, autonomy, and robotics sector.
Dan Ives of Wedbush wrote in a note in mid-December that he anticipates Tesla having a massive 2026, and could reach a $3 trillion valuation this year, especially with the “AI chapter” taking hold of the narrative at the company.
Ives also said that the big step in the right direction for Tesla will be initiating production of the Cybercab, as well as expanding on the Robotaxi program through the next 12 months:
“…as full-scale volume production begins with the autonomous and robotics roadmap…The company has started to test the all-important Cybercab in Austin over the past few weeks, which is an incremental step towards launching in 2026 with important volume production of Cybercabs starting in April/May, which remains the golden goose in unlocking TSLA’s AI valuation.”
Tesla analyst breaks down delivery report: ‘A step in the right direction’
Tesla has transitioned from an automaker to a full-fledged AI company, and its Robotaxi and Cybercab programs, fueled by the Full Self-Driving suite, are leading the charge moving forward. In 2026, there are major goals the company has outlined. The first is removing Safety Drivers from vehicles in Austin, Texas, one of the areas where it operates a ride-hailing service within the U.S.
Ultimately, Tesla will aim to launch a Level 5 autonomy suite to the public in the coming years.