Tesla Sends Bitcoin To Record High With $1.5bn Investment

Tesla has invested $1.5bn in bitcoin and plans to begin accepting it for payment in one of the highest-profile endorsements of the cryptocurrency sector by a major US company. The disclosure from the electric carmaker sent bitcoin rallying to a record high of $44,100, extending its 50 per cent surge so far this year.

Analysts have put the meteoric rally down to growing enthusiasm from institutional investors seeking returns in the era of low interest rates. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Tesla said it purchased the bitcoins after changing its investment policy last month to “diversify and maximise” returns on its cash. Line chart of $ per coin showing Bitcoin soars after Tesla reveals $1.5bn investment For years Tesla was short of cash as it invested heavily in developing its electric vehicles.

Although its finances have improved, the bitcoin investment still represents about 8 per cent of the $19.4bn it held in cash and liquid assets at the end of December, according to the filing. The group said it expected to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for its products, although initially on a “limited basis”, adding that it might sell the digital assets for hard currency once payments are processed.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder, has been a vocal supporter of digital assets on social media, particularly about dogecoin, which he said was the “people’s crypto”. In December he wrote on Twitter that bitcoin was his “safeword” in an apparent joke. Robyn Denholm, an Australian telecoms executive who took over from Musk as chair of Tesla’s board in 2018, is head of the audit committee that signed off on the change to the company’s investment policy.

The change allows Tesla to invest “a portion” of its cash in “alternative reserve assets including digital assets [and] gold bullion”. Recommended John Gapper Electric vehicles need to arrive as fast as vaccines The carmaker is the latest consumer-facing company to venture into cryptocurrency markets, following PayPal. However, cryptocurrencies remain highly volatile and are risky to hold due to frequent hacking and fraud, as well as difficulties in transferring them to cash.

“We believe our bitcoin holdings are highly liquid. However, digital assets may be subject to volatile market prices, which may be unfavourable at the time when we want or need to liquidate them,” Tesla said on Monday. “[This] is a potential game-changing move for the use of bitcoin from a transactional perspective,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Ives said the announcement from Tesla could prompt other companies to make similar decisions given the growing interest in digital currencies. “Investors and other industry watchers will be watching this closely to see if other corporations follow the lead of Tesla on this crypto path or on the other hand does it remain a contained few names that make this strategic jump around bitcoin.”

By: Eva Szalay

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Elon Musk Rants About `Fascist’ COVID-19 Closures As Another Tesla Call Veers Off Course

Elon Musk used Tesla TSLA ’s first-quarter earnings call as an opportunity to angrily vent about extended stay-at-home efforts that are curbing the spread of COVID-19 but which he labels “fascist,” amping up frustration he’d expressed earlier on Twitter. The billionaire CEO’s unexpected rant was reminiscent of his attack on “boring” analyst questions two years ago.

The outburst was surprising given that the electric-car maker beat expectations for the quarter that ended March 31 and remained profitable for the longest stretch in company history, three consecutive quarters. And given that he’s likely to soon qualify for the largest payday of his life, Musk’s mood might have been brighter. News that the San Francisco Bay Area is extending its shelter in place rules through the end of May, likely keeping his main plant idled longer, may have set him off.

“The extension of the shelter in place or–frankly I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights in my opinion–is breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country,” Musk said in response to a question from Morgan Stanley MS analyst Adam Jonas about Tesla’s cash position. “What the f–ck. Excuse me.”

Today In: Transportation
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Six Bay Area counties—San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin—along with the city of Berkeley, said Wednesday that they’re extending shelter-in-place orders through the end of May. In March, Musk initially balked at halting auto production at Tesla’s Fremont plant in Alameda county before sending most factory workers home from March 23. The company doesn’t know yet when work there will resume.

The outburst brought back memories of a May 2018 results call, when Tesla was struggling to boost production of Model 3 electric sedans at Fremont. On that occasion an audibly annoyed Musk dismissed “boring” questions from analysts and instead gave an impromptu interview to a Tesla fan. “Excuse me. Next. Boring bonehead questions are not cool,” he said curtly to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Antonio Sacconaghi after he asked about Tesla’s capital needs. Musk later apologized to him for the outburst.

The extension “will cause great harm to many companies, not just to Tesla,” Musk said on the call. “If somebody wants to stay in the house, that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in their house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do? This is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddam freedom.”

While the Bay Area rules are strict, residents aren’t being arrested when they leave their homes. Shortly after the call ended California Governor Gavin Newsom appeared to respond to Musk.

“Going to REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT: CA is flattening the curve because folks are staying home. Practicing physical distancing. We aren’t out of the woods yet,” Newsom tweeted. “We must continue to take this seriously and allow our re-opening to be guided by science and public health.”

                          

Tesla investors seemed unfazed by Musk’s rant. The shares rose 9% in after-market trading to $874.23.

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Source: Elon Musk Rants About `Fascist’ COVID-19 Closures As Another Tesla Call Veers Off Course

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Tesla Gets Ready To Report After Upside Surprise On Q2 Vehicle Deliveries

Getty Images
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Key Takeaways:

  • Tesla earnings this afternoon follow strong Q2 deliveries
  • Stock on a roll since falling below $200 a share this spring
  • Lower product prices raise questions for some analysts

Considering all the big news Tesla (TSLA) delivered over the last two weeks, its Q2 earnings report this afternoon might seem a bit anticlimactic.

Arguably the biggest (and best) news of the quarter is already digested. The company reported better-than-expected car deliveries for the second quarter. Earlier this month, TSLA said it delivered 95,200 total vehicles in Q2, ahead of Wall Street’s estimate for 91,000. That’s the widest beat in at least three years, according to market forecaster FactSet.

It’s also a huge turn-around from the company’s disappointing 63,000 in Q1, and might reflect some buyers deciding to jump in ahead of the Federal tax credit on TSLA’s cars being halved on July 1, Forbes noted. In Q2, the Model 3 posted deliveries of 77,550, surpassing consensus estimates on Wall Street for 74,100. Combined deliveries for the Model S sedans and Model X SUVs were 17,650, beating estimates of 16,600, according to FactSet data.

The delivery data also might confirm that the March quarter wasn’t quite as bad as people had thought, because thousands of the company’s cars were in transit at the end of March, but those deliveries ended up occurring in Q2. In other words, deliveries over time might be a little smoother than the quarter-to-quarter numbers show.

Shares Took Another Wild Ride in Q2

Smoothness isn’t a word often associated with TSLA, either the company itself or its shares. The Q2 was no different, with TSLA bouncing back quickly from a May sell-off that carried shares of the company down below $200 for the first time since late 2016. Shares recently were back above $250.

Where they go from here depends partly on whether TSLA can meet its delivery goals for the remainder of 2019. As Barron’s noted, TSLA delivered 158,000 cars in the first half—a number it might update when it reports earnings. Its goal for the year is 360,000 to 400,000, meaning it has to do a lot better in the next six months than it did in the first six months of 2019.

It might be interesting to listen to the company’s earnings call to see if executives provide investors a road map of how they plan to get to that point, especially considering the falling government tax incentives for electric car buyers.

Vehicle production was another Q2 highlight, rising to a record 87,048, TSLA said. That included 72,531 of its Model 3 and 14,517 of its Model S/X. Customer vehicles in transit at the end of the quarter were more than 7,400.

Even as it tries to grow production, TSLA has been under pressure to cut costs. The company has made workforce cuts this year, and this month it announced a revamping of its vehicle lineup. The company cut back the total number of vehicles available, making its lower-end Model 3 more affordable while raising prices on its higher-end Models S and X.

It did this, it said in a statement, “To make purchasing our vehicles even easier.” The pricing adjustment, it added, is “in order to continue to improve affordability for customers.”

Tesla said it’s reducing the price of the Model 3 by $1,000 to $38,990. The company will no longer sell the standard range versions of the Model S and Model X, raising the minimum amount people have to pay for those cars. The base version of the Model S is rising to $79,990 from $75,000, while the price of the Model X is increasing to $84,990 from $81,000.

However, lower prices for the Model 3 could mean lower margins for TSLA, which might lead to pressure on profitability. Speaking of which, analysts don’t expect a profitable Q2 despite the big deliveries. This would be the second “red” quarter in a row for the company, a troubling sign after it posted consecutive profitable quarters in the second half of 2018. The decision to lower prices also has some analysts questioning whether demand is there for TSLA’s vehicles.

In a sign that TSLA continues to work on expense control, it said it made “significant progress” in Q2 “streamlining our global logistics and delivery operations at higher volumes, enabling cost efficiencies and improvements to our working capital position.”

Cash Check

The company’s cash position is usually something analysts monitor at earnings time, and this quarter is no different. Tesla’s wallet looked lighter at the end of Q1 due to a bond payment, expansion costs, and a high number of vehicles in transit, analysts said. One question is whether that improved in Q2, and whether management can meet its forecast for positive free cash flow in the quarter. That might help soothe chronic worries about how quickly TSLA goes through cash.

Among investors, TSLA shares continue to see a lot of love from the Millennial generation. The company’s stock has been a long-time favorite of younger investors, according to the Investor Movement Index, or the IMX, a proprietary, behavior-based index created by TD Ameritrade designed to indicate the sentiment of retail investors.

For TSLA, the “magic” price point in early June seemed to be $200 a share. When the stock fell below that, retail investors appeared to become buyers and come back into the stock in a heavier way.

It’s pretty impressive how TSLA continues to attract younger people to its stock. People are buying what they know, but, like anything, it’s also important to do the research before buying.  Caveat emptor applies to any stock, not just TSLA.

thinkorswim chart

200 CLUB: Shares of TSLA appeared to get a lot of buying interest earlier this year when they fell briefly below $200 a share. Data source: Nasdaq. Chart source: The thinkorswim® platform from TD Ameritrade. For illustrative purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

thinkorswim

Tesla Earnings and Options Activity

For Q2, TSLA is expected to report adjusted earnings of negative-$0.42 per share, up from negative-$3.06 the prior-year quarter, on revenue of $6.42 billion, according to third-party consensus analyst estimates. That revenue would represent a 60.4% rise from a year ago.

Options traders have priced in an 5.5% stock move in either direction around the coming earnings release, according to the Market Maker Move™ indicator on the thinkorswim® platform. Implied volatility was at the 21st percentile as of this morning.

Weekly options activity has been higher in the 240- and 245-strike puts and the 275- and 285- strike calls.

Note: Call options represent the right, but not the obligation, to buy the underlying security at a predetermined price over a set period of time. Put options represent the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying security at a predetermined price over a set period of time.

TD Ameritrade® commentary for educational purposes only. Member SIPC.

I am Chief Market Strategist for TD Ameritrade and began my career as a Chicago Board Options Exchange market maker, trading primarily in the S&P 100 and S&P 500 pits. I’ve also worked for ING Bank, Blue Capital and was Managing Director of Option Trading for Van Der Moolen, USA. In 2006, I joined the thinkorswim Group, which was eventually acquired by TD Ameritrade. I am a 30-year trading veteran and a regular CNBC guest, as well as a member of the Board of Directors at NYSE ARCA and a member of the Arbitration Committee at the CBOE. My licenses include the 3, 4, 7, 24 and 66.

Source: Tesla Gets Ready To Report After Upside Surprise On Q2 Vehicle Deliveries

Tesla Says Plant Worker Injuries Stayed Flat In 2018 Amid Production ‘Hell’

Tesla’s push to more than double production of its electric vehicles last year wasn’t pretty; in fact CEO Elon Musk said it would be “hell.” In 2018 the injury rate at its main assembly plant stayed flat as the company expanded safety procedures and contended with news stories that highlighted worker injuries and questioned the thoroughness of its injury reporting practices……….

Source: Tesla Says Plant Worker Injuries Stayed Flat In 2018 Amid Production ‘Hell’

2 Reasons To Sell Tesla: $920M And $26,250

A little more than two months from now, Tesla — in which I have no financial interest — could have a considerably lower cash balance. How so? The terms of a $920 million convertible bond make me think that come March 1, Tesla will have to part with at least a third of its remaining cash. Is Tesla stock overvalued? On January 18, Tesla traded at 22% below its June 2018 all-time high and it lost 13% of its value in the wake of CEO Elon Musk’s decision to cut 7% of its employees……..

Source: 2 Reasons To Sell Tesla: $920M And $26,250

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