TSLA stock

Elon Musk’s ‘Master Plan Part 2’ is still hot off from the press and Wall Street is already asking to see the money. With the new product plan, Tesla is expanding the list of industries it plans to disrupt, but that will come at a cost.

The company is just coming out of a $2.3 billion secondary stock offering ($1.7 billion in net proceeds) to primarily finance the Model 3 program and the needed $1.2 billion Fremont factory expansion, but now Musk added a pickup truck, a heavy-duty truck, and a bus, among other things, to Tesla’s product lineup.

While Wall Street seems mostly happy with the plan, several analysts covering Tesla are asking how the company plans to finance the new programs and expect more capital raise on the public market.
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Tesla is reportedly being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a potential securities law breach regarding the disclosure of the fatal Model S crash in Florida while the driver was using the Autopilot. The investigation is believed to be aiming to determine if the news of the fatal crash was a material information during the $2.3 billion secondary offering announced on May 18, just a week after Tesla learned of the crash.

The company confirmed the accident on June 30, when the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it will probe the Autopilot system over the accident.

Former SEC chairman Harvey Pitt commented on the situation earlier this week and gave some insights into what the SEC could be looking to investigate and what could be the consequences for Tesla.
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Adam Jonas, Morgan Stanley’s analyst covering Tesla, has been predicting a new “on-demand mobility service” program for the automaker ever since he had a very one-sided conversation with Elon Musk in which the CEO said a lot by refusing to answer a question about whether the company plans on offering a service like Uber or maybe partnering with the startup.
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The Wall Street Journal reported today after market close that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is in the early stage of investigating Tesla (TSLA) over a potential securities law breach regarding the disclosure of the fatal Model S crash in Florida while the driver was using the Autopilot.
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If you are wondering how come Tesla’s stock price is performing relatively well in the past week despite all the bad publicity following a recent fatal accident while a Model S driver was using Autopilot, an NHTSA evaluation that could lead to a recall and an important delivery miss for the last quarter, Ihor Dusaniwsky, Head of Research at the financial analytics firm S3 Partners, has an interesting theory explaining the situation.
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Norway is still moving down the list of Tesla’s top-selling markets with another disappointing quarter in deliveries for the Model S. The market was the automaker’s biggest in Europe with about 8% of its total worldwide deliveries last year.
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Today is the first trading day for Tesla’s (TSLA) stock after the automaker released its second quarter production and delivery results – missing its goals for both. The automaker confirmed missing its delivery guidance of 17,000 vehicles in Q2 with only 14,370 vehicles, while also missing its production guidance of 20,000 vehicles with only 18,345 vehicles.

The stock price fell sharply (over 4%) in pre-market. Now the first Wall Street analysts are commenting and adjusting their earnings prediction to account for the new information released by Tesla.
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Tesla’s detractors have been claiming that the automaker reached the peak demand for its flagship sedan, the Model S, ever since its first full year of production in 2013. Tesla has proven them wrong over and over again with record-breaking deliveries last year, but as evidenced by the company recent results, it will be more difficult to reject allegations of reaching peak demand.
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Tesla (TSLA) released today its production and delivery numbers for the second quarter 2016. The automaker confirmed missing its delivery guidance of 17,000 vehicles in Q2 with only 14,370 vehicles, while also missing its production guidance of 20,000 vehicles with only 18,345 vehicles.
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In a new note to client today, Credit Suisse downgraded SolarCity’s (SCTY) stock from ‘Outperform’ to ‘Neutral’ with a price target of $27.00 (from $38.00 previously) based on what it sees as an increased probability of the Tesla’s (TSLA) acquisition deal closing, which it estimates to be ‘grossly undervalued’.
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Tesla manufactures its drive inverter for the Model S/X in-house at its Fremont factory, but the automaker is using proven off-the-shelf products — primarily TO-247 transistor packages. The company used this approach from the start when working on the Roadster. Like what it has been doing with battery cell technology, the automaker saw an opportunity to attach its product to improvements in transistor systems to gradually allow more powerful and efficient powertrains.

While the strategy served it well so far, Tesla is moving away from it with its third generation platform and consequently, with the Tesla Model 3. The company will be using new battery cells manufactured at its Gigafactory in Nevada and as it turns out, it also started from a blank sheet for its new inverter architecture. Electrek has learned new information about the system which has some interesting implications for the upcoming $35,000 all-electric sedan.
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Following Tesla’s (TSLA) acquisition offer to SolarCity (SCTY) last week, the automaker’s stock price fell sharply, but while the market tumbled after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union the next day, the stocks of both companies outperform the market – indicating some resistance.

Now we learn that Wall Street is betting big against the companies as short interest is close to all time high and short sellers are out of shares to borrow.
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If you read the headlines about Tesla’s plan to acquire SolarCity, you might think that the move is universally hated. The Globe and Mail wrote “Tesla stock plummets as planned SolarCity buy puzzles everybody but Musk ” – everybody but Musk? I wouldn’t be so sure.

While everyone and their mother seem to hate on the acquisition plan, the real question is: do shareholders like it? And maybe more importantly: do institutional shareholders like it? They will be the ones deciding after all.
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Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has been a long-time bull on Tesla Motors (TSLA). The New York Time called him the ‘Tesla Cheerleader‘, but today the analyst is out with a rare negative note on the automaker following the announcement that the company made an offer to buy SolarCity.
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Since Tesla announced its offer to buy SolarCity, which is still contingent on a vote by the shareholders, Wall Street has turned on the company with analysts issuing notes claiming that there’s little to no value in the deal. Barclays analyst Brian Johnson issued a note saying that he sees “little in the way of synergies and much in the way of cash burn.”

It’s not like Wall Street analysts have the best foresight, Johnson himself is ranked #2,713 out of 3,984 analysts on TipRank with an average return of -0.7%, but they represent the point of view of the financial sector.

As for the point of view from the actual customer offering/product side, a merger between Tesla and SolarCity will certainly open the door for some interesting product integrations and new distribution opportunities.
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During a conference call discussing the rationale surrounding Tesla’s (TSLA) offer to acquire SolarCity (SCTY) this morning, Elon Musk made a bold claim, something not unusual for the billionaire entrepreneur, he said that he sees potential for Tesla to become a trillion-dollar market cap company – which would be a first.
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Today, Tesla (TSLA) announced that it submitted an offer to acquire SolarCity (SCTY), the leading solar installer in the US. Elon Musk is the largest individual shareholder of both companies. Due to his obvious interest in the deal, which is already being called a bailout by some shareholders, Musk decided to recuse himself from the vote at both companies and leave it to Tesla and SolarCity shareholders to decide on the possible consolidation of ‘Musk Industries’.
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Tesla’s stock price (TSLA) is up over 3% following a new note by RBC analyst Joseph Spak to clients this morning. The analyst recently visited Tesla’s Fremont Factory and met with the management. He came out of the meeting with the impression that Tesla is confident that it can ramp up Model 3 production quickly, which is essential to the company short- to mid-term goals.
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Tesla’s stock (TSLA) rallied last week following comments by Ron Baron. The rally didn’t last long after rumors of a potential problem with Tesla’s suspension started to spread quickly at the end of last week.

While the rumors have been mostly shut down at this point, Tesla’s stock is having difficulty recovering and a new report about the automaker’s sales in Europe is not helping.
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Analyst Brad Erickson from Pacific Crest issued a new note to clients today following a visit of the Tesla Fremont Factory. The analyst noted that Tesla appears to be on track to exit the second quarter at the a production rate of 2,000 cars per week (Model S and X combined) and it is tracking toward its annual delivery target of 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles.

While Erickson appears confident that the automaker can achieve its short-term delivery goals, he is more cautious about Tesla’s new plan for 500,000 vehicles in 2018.
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Tesla’s brand has significantly increased in value over the past year, especially since the Model 3 unveiling and the more than 373,000 reservations it received. On the other hand, Volkswagen’s brand took a big hit following the ‘Dieselgaste’ scandal, so much so that Tesla has now surpassed the company’s VW brand in “brand value”.

BrandZ published its annual report of the 100 most valuable brands and Tesla knocked VW out of the top 10 in the car category.
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