Research archive for TSLA

There's been a lot of Tesla hating recently so I have taken it upon myself to remind everyone why this company is so awesome. Tesla still holds the top position as the maker of the most popular electric cars in the US and in many other parts of the globe.

Yesterday we had a few clients asking what we thought of Tesla. Given that the stock is down 70% from its high, this is understandable. Elon Musk's Twitter purchase hasn't been good for the stock because he has had to sell billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to finance the deal, and now he seems more focused on Twitter than Tesla. Elon's brand and reputation has taken a hit due to his management style at the social media company. Tesla's brand is closely linked to him, so it hurts demand for cars when he falls out of favour.

Tesla has 20 billion electric vehicle charging miles to their name and can safely claim they have the most proven charging connector in North America.

Tesla reported third-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Wall Street last night. I stayed up past my bedtime to watch the numbers hit the wires. Consensus forecasts had revenue at $22.13 billion and adjusted earnings per share at $1.015. They delivered $21.45 billion and $1.05 per share. The stock price fell about 6% in after-hours trade.

On Friday last week Tesla had their AI day which excited geeks all around the world, myself included. Most of the hype was focused on the Optimus robot which was just an idea six months ago and is now an actual humanoid machine that walked onto the stage. If you are into this kind of thing, Tesla Daily has done an edited video of the three-hour event, which compresses all the highlights into 23 minutes.

According to the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla's August deliveries were surprisingly good. The electric vehicle maker churned out over 77 000 cars for the month, nearly tripling from July and up 74% year-on-year. That was thanks to a big jump in production from its Shanghai Gigafactory. More than 42 000 of those deliveries were exports.

Tesla reported its second-quarter numbers after the market close yesterday. This is its first successive decline in quarterly profit in more than a year as the EV maker recovers from an extended shutdown at its Shanghai gigafactory. The good news is that the results topped expectations despite all the headwinds of a global chip drought and higher material prices.

Tesla just released its second quarter production and delivery numbers showing that the electric vehicle maker delivered 254 695 cars. That's about 50 000 units fewer than the previous quarter, which was an all-time high. This was the first sequential down quarter in a very long time. Covid-19 restrictions in Shanghai forced the firm to shut down that factory for most of the period.

Tesla reported record profits again last night, with earnings per share of $3.22 versus the $2.27 that was expected. The company did caution that their production system is really battling currently with supply constraints and volatile pricing of key components.

Tesla is launching a more affordable version of the Model Y, complete with increased battery capacity. The new battery cells will be twice the size of the current batteries; however, it will hold five times the capacity. Talk about a bump in output!

Tesla announced record deliveries for the first quarter of 310 048 cars, an increase of 68% from a year earlier. On a rolling 12 month basis, this is also the first time they have delivered more than one million vehicles.

Yesterday Bright noted that China is a key growth market for Tesla and other EV players. The surge in Tesla's share in 2020 was arguably kickstarted by the completion of the Shanghai Gigafactory, when the market realised how quickly Tesla would increase production. Rumours are swirling that Tesla is in the process of planning a second Chinese Gigafactory.

On Wednesday night, Tesla reported their 4th quarter and full-year numbers. Tesla is the most actively-traded stock in history, so it always stirs excitement. As long-term holders of Tesla shares, we prefer to look at the trends in the full-year numbers.

The turning point for Tesla, in my opinion, was the construction of the Chinese Gigafactory. The market was caught off guard because in less than a year, Tesla doubled their production capacity, going from one to two factories. It also helped that China was a massive growth market for Tesla.

I've got some bad news. The Tesla Cybertruck webpage no longer mentions 2022 as the year of production for the highly anticipated EV. What's worse is that Tesla gave no reason for the change. This means that sales of the futuristic-looking truck will be delayed further until an announcement is made about its production programme.