Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2018 financial report and earnings call: What to expect
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is set to release its financial report for the second quarter after markets close on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, followed by its Q2 2018 earnings call at 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. EST).
With a vast majority of the second-quarter spent pushing volume production of Model 3, questions are abounding if vehicle demand matches company claims and if Tesla is finally on its way to profitability. Arguably, the elephant in the room will be indicators on whether the company will have to raise more capital due to what Wall Street analysts widely regard as Tesla’s cash flow challenges. Here is an outline of things to expect in Tesla’s Q2 2018 financial results and earnings call.
Tesla’s Losses and Revenue
Considering that the electric car maker continued to invest heavily in the Model 3 ramp over Q2, a consensus among Wall Street analysts suggest that Tesla would be reporting a loss of $2.81 per share. Among 21 analysts, the range for expectations made public about the company’s losses for the second quarter spans from a loss of $3.44 to $1.71 per share.
Wall Street analysts estimate that Tesla would post revenue of around $3.97 billion, which is significantly higher than the $2.79 billion the company posted for the second quarter of 2017. If analysts’ predictions are correct, Tesla would be able to post a year-on-year growth of $42.3%. Ultimately, Tesla’s revenue would be a compelling point in the company’s financial report, validating CEO Elon Musk’s narrative that the electric car and energy company continues to see strong demand in the past seven quarters. Tesla’s revenue has increased sequentially in each of the last six quarters as well.
Model 3 Ramp and Delivery Guidance
Tesla is expected to give an update on the current state of Model 3 production. With the electric car maker managing to hit its self-imposed target of manufacturing 5,000 Model 3 per week in a “burst build effort” during the final week of June, questions are now abounding about the company’s capability to exceed this production rate.
Tesla’s plans and strategies for the delivery of the Model 3 are also expected to be discussed in the Q2 earnings call. With the company recently selling its 200,000th vehicle in the United States, Tesla would likely provide delivery guidance for the Model 3 as the $7,500 federal tax credit starts its phase-out period.
Tesla Energy
Tesla Energy has slowly been growing in the background as the company’s electric car business stayed in the limelight. Over the past months, Tesla has teased several key developments in its Energy business. During the 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Elon Musk mentioned that the company is on pace to “cross a key battery-cost threshold of $100-per-kilowatt-hour later this year.” Such a milestone could cut the cost of its upcoming products such as the Model Y, while pushing Tesla forward as a leader in battery technology.
Updates on large-scale Tesla Energy initiatives, including a 1 GWh scale energy project that Musk teased in the Shareholder Meeting, as well as the South Australia virtual power plant, would likely be discussed as well.
Financial Guidance
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made his stance clear during the now-infamous Q1 2018 earnings call that he does not intend to raise capital this year. Musk has also reiterated his prediction that Tesla would be profitable in the third or fourth quarter of 2018. This goal, however, hinges on the successful ramp of the Model 3.
During Tesla’s update on vehicle deliveries for Q1, the company stated that the 5,000 Model 3 per week milestone is expected to lay “the groundwork for Q3 to have the long-sought ideal combination of high volume, good gross margin, and strong positive operating cash flow.” Tesla’s Q2 2018 earnings call would likely cover how the company plans to hit the green for the second half of the year.
A webcast of Tesla’s Q2 2018 earnings call could be accessed here on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. EST).
Elon Musk
Tesla stock gets latest synopsis from Jim Cramer: ‘It’s actually a robotics company’
“Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session,” Cramer said.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) got its latest synopsis from Wall Street analyst Jim Cramer, who finally realized something that many fans of the company have known all along: it’s not a car company. Instead, it’s a robotics company.
In a recent note that was released after Tesla reported Earnings in late January, Cramer seemed to recognize that the underwhelming financials and overall performance of the automotive division were not representative of the current state of affairs.
Instead, we’re seeing a company transition itself away from its early identity, essentially evolving like a caterpillar into a butterfly.
The narrative of the Earnings Call was simple: We’re not a car company, at least not from a birds-eye view. We’re an AI and Robotics company, and we are transitioning to this quicker than most people realize.
Tesla stock gets another analysis from Jim Cramer, and investors will like it
Tesla’s Q4 Earnings Call featured plenty of analysis from CEO Elon Musk and others, and some of the more minor details of the call were even indicative of a company that is moving toward AI instead of its cars. For example, the Model S and Model X will be no more after Q2, as Musk said that they serve relatively no purpose for the future.
Instead, Tesla is shifting its focus to the vehicles catered for autonomy and its Robotaxi and self-driving efforts.
Cramer recognizes this:
“…we got results from Tesla, which actually beat numbers, but nobody cares about the numbers here, as electric vehicles are the past. And according to CEO Elon Musk, the future of this company comes down to Cybercabs and humanoid robots. Stock fell more than 3% the next day. That may be because their capital expenditures budget was higher than expected, or maybe people wanted more details from the new businesses. At this point, I think Musk acolytes might be more excited about SpaceX, which is planning to come public later this year.”
He continued, highlighting the company’s true transition away from vehicles to its Cybercab, Optimus, and AI ambitions:
“I know it’s hard to believe how quickly this market can change its attitude. Last night, I heard a disastrous car company speak. Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session. I didn’t like it as a car company. Boy, I love it as a Cybercab and humanoid robot juggernaut. Call me a buyer and give me five robots while I’m at it.”
Cramer’s narrative seems to fit that of the most bullish Tesla investors. Anyone who is labeled a “permabull” has been echoing a similar sentiment over the past several years: Tesla is not a car company any longer.
Instead, the true focus is on the future and the potential that AI and Robotics bring to the company. It is truly difficult to put Tesla shares in the same group as companies like Ford, General Motors, and others.
Tesla shares are down less than half a percent at the time of publishing, trading at $423.69.
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.
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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.
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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.
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