Research archive for TSLA

Power generation is a hot topic in South Africa at the moment. And everyone seems to have an opinion. Although most of those opinions are not really solutions.

On Wednesday after the US market closed, Tesla reported their Full-Year and Q4 numbers. It was the first time in the history of the company that it reported a profit for two quarters in a row. This feat was all thanks to the massive ramp-up of the Model 3 production. The graph below shows you just how impressive the accomplishment is.

On Friday, Tesla published a memo saying that the company will be laying off about 7% of its full-time employees in the US. The electric car maker will be cutting all non-core contractors in a race to bring the company to profitability and ramp up the $35 000 Model 3.

When I was in Europe 3-years ago I noticed that quite a few taxies were Tesla Model S's. This may sound extravagant but for industries which put heavy mileage onto vehicles, it makes sense to go electric. The obvious saving comes from the use of fuel but don't forget that electric vehicles are far easier and cheaper to maintain. The old school motor industry is very reliant on servicing your vehicles. That is why they forfeit warranties if you do not service your vehicle at branded dealerships. This also means that the resale value of electric vehicles is better.

Tesla reported blockbuster, eye-popping quarterly profits in its third, and the most profitable quarter since listing. Most analysts expected to see more red on the profit and loss statement.

As expected, the Tesla stock got crushed on Friday, closing down 13.9%! Then in the early hours on Sunday morning, Saturday afternoon in California, I received a notification on my phone saying that Musk had settled with the SEC. The first question I asked myself was, why not settle the first time around? Delaying things by a day resulted in the steep drop in the stock, and the new settlement is worse than the old settlement.

Normally when we mention market movements and tweeting, we are referring to President Trump. In this case it was Elon Musk. See his tweets below. Before his tweet, Tesla was already up around 4.5% because it emerged that the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has a stake of between 3% - 5%. Then Musk's tweet landed sending the stock even higher.

One of the most controversial stocks that we own for clients in New York is electric vehicle company Tesla. Investors either seem to love them or hate them? The SA-born CEO Elon Musk is hardly ever out of the news headlines, and often for strong reasons, like sending some random a nasty message on Twitter.

Recently we've been getting a lot of questions on how the trade war between the U.S. and China will affect business in the short-run and ultimately their underlying share prices. Well today I come to you with a real life example in the automobile industry.

Tesla has invited all the people that have reservations for the Tesla Model 3 to start pimping their cars for an additional $2 500. The 450 000 individuals that put down the $1 000 deposits in 2016, to reserve their spots for this new and exciting electric sedan, can finally choose their optional extras as Tesla ramps up production. So far Tesla has delivered more than 12 000 Model 3s with a goal of producing 5 000 Model 3s per week which is still yet to be seen.

Tesla released a "not so bad" set of first quarter numbers versus analysts expectations seeing all-time record Q1 orders for the flagship Models S, 3 and X. The company produced 24 728 Model S & X, 9 766 Model 3 and delivered 21 815 Model S & X and 8 182 in the quarter.

Sometimes the market creates self-fulfilling prophecies. Sometimes these work and sometimes they don't. More often than not, they don't work. You see, the market provides access to capital. A company's share price (size) is a big determinant of how much capital you get to access, especially if you are issuing equity. The higher your share price, the more capital you can access, the more acquisitions you can make, the faster you can grow, the higher your share price goes etc.

Tesla reported fourth quarter and full year numbers two days ago which always sparks excitement. At the same time, Elon Musk had just launched his Roadster into space and images like this were floating around the internet.

WOW! Musk was right; he did blow everyone's mind at the truck launch last night in California. People are not talking about the new truck launched though, they are talking about the launch of the new Roadster. I am amazed that they managed to keep the development of the Roadster out of the media.

We have often spoken about how being a pessimist makes you sound smart and being an optimist makes you sound naive. I find this very ironic and somewhat strange on the back of a globe that is constantly improving in so many facets of life. The stats don't lie. Poverty levels have decreased, healthcare has drastically improved and more and people are living better lives. Of course there are a lot of negatives out there that need improving. One of those is the environment.