Elon’s Message To Einhorn: Come Over
In a letter to clients, hedge fund manager David Einhorn pretty much accused Elon Musk of fraud after the surprising Q3 earnings report. Elon replied to Einhorn with a message of his own.
In a letter to clients, hedge fund manager David Einhorn pretty much accused Elon Musk of fraud after the surprising Q3 earnings report. Elon replied to Einhorn with a message of his own.
I planned to write my usual straightforward analysis forecasting Tesla’s Q4 financials. Then this headline caught my attention: “Tesla Short David Einhorn Says Last Quarter Was ‘As Good As It Gets.’”
The prominent billionaire investor David Einhorn is sticking with his guns … that is, with his to date very costly strategy of betting against Tesla’s stock. The reasons? The same as before: he thinks that Tesla stock is overvalued and Tesla isn’t adequately capitalized to achieve its plans.
Short sellers have been preying on Tesla stock for years. Have they finally reached their come-uppance? “Most big Tesla shorts aren’t losing sleep or missing meals because of their positions,” Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, told Institutional Investor. “They still think this will eventually go their way.”
A recent Musk tweet draws upon multiple media marketing techniques to promote the Tesla catalog & censure naysayers.
The most popular CleanTechnica stories last week included fun content about an off-grid month with SunPower solar panels + Tesla Powerwalls, the just-beginning economies of scale Tesla is getting from its gigafactories, a pitch for Elon Musk’s The Boring Company getting into pumped hydro, Tesla dominating US electric vehicle sales, and much more. Scroll down for the headlines and click through to the ones that tickle your fancy!
Tesla’s stock is tumbling in the largest decline in TSLA history, and the media is in a frenzy. The headlines on Tesla are starting to include the words such as “troubles,” “struggles,” and even “doomed.” The narrative says Tesla’s demand is falling, its balance sheet is in terrible shape, and Tesla will run out of cash in 10 months. The narrative also claims that Tesla will miss expectations in the second quarter, and one analyst says that Tesla might go to $10/share from the current $190, which is already down >50% from the highs. However, the data show that none of that is true. Tesla’s orders are at an all-time high in North America and worldwide, the balance sheet is the strongest it has been in 6 quarters, and the average 12-month price target among analysts is $276/share, or 46% higher than today’s price.
In this episode of our CleanTech Talk podcast interview series, Chanan Bos and I sat down with Galileo Russell, CEO, Founder, Director, Producer, and Host of HyperChange TV.
Having a sociology background, I have to say that the whole Tesla short seller drama is fascinating. In the year 2019, that includes flamewars on social media, paid trolls & misleading message makers, ties to mainstream media, fanboys & fangirls fighting back, and even a legal battle between the SEC and Twitter-loving CEO Elon Musk. Oh yeah, and billions of dollars on the line.
I received quite a few comments that running Tesla’s finances through a lemonade stand confused readers. I realized two things. People without a financial background loved it. People who fully read Tesla’s SEC filings for a mid-morning snack hated it, or at best tolerated it. 😉