Tag: tesla

After driving a Tesla for seven months, Piper Jaffray analyst Alexander Potter on Monday upgraded the stock to “overweight” from “neutral”, describing Tesla’s products as “captivating”.

“Tesla isn’t just another company. More so than any stock we’ve covered, Tesla engenders optimism, freedom, defiance, and a host of other emotions that, in our view, other companies cannot replicate,” Potter wrote in a report.

Skeptics believe Tesla’s growth targets are unrealistic and that the company risks being overtaken by GM, Ford and other deep-pocketed manufacturers ramping up their own electric-vehicle offerings.

Its market capitalization remains smaller than Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp, at $173 billion.

Tesla’s rich valuation has made it a target of short sellers, who so far in 2017 have suffered over $2 billion in paper losses as the stock rallied.

Jeffrey Gundlach, who oversees over $105 billion in assets at Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital, told Reuters last week: “As a car company alone, Tesla is crazy high valuation. As a battery company – one that expands and innovates substantially – maybe the valuation can work.”

Tesla, the U.S. luxury electric car maker, said on Sunday first-quarter vehicle deliveries jumped 69 percent from a year ago to a quarterly record of 25,000 vehicles, bouncing back from delays in the previous quarter.

The company said of the total vehicles delivered, about 13,450 were Model S sedan and about 11,550 were Model X sports utility vehicle.

Tesla has said it expects to deliver 47,000 to 50,000 Model S and Model X vehicles combined in the first half of 2017.

In the fourth quarter, deliveries had fallen 9.4 percent due to short-term production hurdles from the transition to a new autopilot hardware.

Tesla had said production challenges, which started at the end of October and lasted through early December, shifted vehicle production towards the end of the fourth quarter, resulting in delayed deliveries.

Ultimately, about 2,750 vehicles were missed being counted as deliveries in the fourth quarter either due to last-minute delays in transport or because the customer was unable to physically take delivery.

In addition to the first quarter deliveries, about 4,650 vehicles were in transit to customers at the end of the quarter and will be counted as deliveries in the cond quarter, Tesla said in a statement on Sunday.

Production in the first quarter also hit a quarterly record at 25,418 vehicles.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has taken big risks repeatedly since going public in 2010, but investors got spooked after he said in February the electric car company could get “close to the edge” as it burns cash ahead of its crucial Model 3 launch.

China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) bought a 5 percent stake in Tesla last week for $1.78 billion, providing the company with a deep-pocketed ally as it prepares to launch its mass-market Model 3.

Tesla Inc said on Wednesday its mass-market Model 3 sedan was on track for volume production by September, encouraging investors who see the electric vehicle as the avenue to profitability for the young company.

But the carmaker’s operations continued to burn through cash, and Chief Executive Elon Musk told analysts on a conference call that he may ask Wall Street for more.

“According to our financial plan, no capital needs to be raised for the Model 3 but we get very close to the edge,” Musk told investors on a conference call. Tesla plans an additional $2 billion to $2.5 billion in capital expenses before the Model 3 launch and has $3.4 billion cash on hand.

“We’re considering a number of options but I think it probably makes sense to raise capital to reduce risk,” Musk said.

Musk said Chief Financial Officer Jason Wheeler, in his role for just over a year, would leave in April to work in public policy. He will be replaced by former Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja, who was popular with investors.

Tesla, whose shares rose as much as 3 percent after the bell before settling up around 1.6 percent to $277.90, beat analysts’ expectations for revenue. Its adjusted loss missed the consensus target calculated by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, although there was an unusually large range of estimates due to confusion over accounting for the acquisition of solar installer SolarCity.

Ivan Feinseth, director of research at Tigress Financial Partners, said Tesla “delivered the results the market has been expecting” that drove the stock from a year low of $167.84 last February to a year high of $287.39 last week.

By late spring or early summer, Feinseth estimated, Tesla will likely raise more money, noting that today’s highs could make it sooner rather than later.

“You have to feed the ducks while they’re quacking. If they came to the market now they would be well received,” he said.

Up to Wednesday’s close, Tesla’s stock had risen 53.9 percent in the last 12 months.

Many investors and suppliers have predicted Model 3 volume production would be delayed until 2018, but Tesla said it would produce over 5,000 Model 3s per week “at some point in the fourth quarter”, and 10,000 vehicles per week “at some point in 2018”.

Musk reiterated that Tesla still planned to deliver 500,000 cars in 2018 and 1 million vehicles by 2020.

Tesla did not give its usual full-year delivery estimate, but said it expected to deliver 47,000 to 50,000 Model S and Model X vehicles combined in the first half of 2017.

The company did not give a Model 3 target for this year and declined to update a previous disclosure made last April that 373,000 advance reservations had been taken for the car.

“We’re still in great shape,” said Wheeler, when asked about early demand for the car.

The public might not see the final version of the Model 3 until as late as July, when limited production begins, Musk said.

Capital expenditures doubled in the fourth quarter to $521.6 million, as Tesla invests in its Fremont, California factory and its Gigafactory battery plant in Nevada.

Cash rose by $309 million to $3.39 billion, which includes funds raised from a share sale last year.

SolarCity installed more than 20 percent less solar in the quarter, as it focuses on profitability and cash over growth. Solar generation deployed fell to 201 MW in the fourth quarter from 253 MW a year earlier.

Tesla’s net loss attributable to common shareholders narrowed to $121.3 million, or 78 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $320.4 million, or $2.44 per share, a year earlier.

The adjusted loss of 69 cents per share compared with the analyst consensus of a 43-cent loss, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 88 percent to $2.28 billion, topping Wall Street’s target of $2.18 billion.