Tesla Reports Second-Consecutive Profit; CFO Retires Again 102
Rei writes: Yesterday, Tesla reported their 4th quarter earnings, representing their second consecutive profit. While earnings per share missed analyst expectations ($1.93 vs. $2.20), revenue beat expectations by around $100 million and free cash flow ($910 million) was more than double the First Call consensus of $395 million. Model 3 margins were maintained at an impressive 20% level despite significant reductions in the average sale price in Q4; labor hours fell by 20% in Q4 and 65% in the second half of 2018 alone. With $3.7 billion in the bank, Tesla is now well positioned to repay its $920 million March convertible bond obligations in cash. Severance costs and an increase in inventory in transit due to shipments to Europe and China are expected to hurt Tesla's profits in Q1, but guidance for Q2 onward in 2019 is strong. Highlights planned for 2019 include introduction of faster V3 Supercharging early in the year, Model Y and pickup unveiling in the middle of the year, base Model 3 unveiling in the middle of the year, and full-vehicle production in the under-construction Shanghai Gigafactory by the end of the year -- the first wholly foreign-owned auto plant in China, which has seen extensive governmental support.
Despite a generally positive earnings report and conference call, the atmosphere was soured by the news that Tesla's 11-year Tesla veteran CFO Deepak Ahuja was re-retiring. Having previously retired in 2015, Deepak returned to Tesla in 2017 to replace outgoing CFO Jason Wheeler. Ahuja will remain with the company for several months as CFO and then become a senior advisor, while his protege Zach Kirkhorn fills his role. The market reacted negatively to the news, with Tesla trading down 4.5% premarket.
Despite a generally positive earnings report and conference call, the atmosphere was soured by the news that Tesla's 11-year Tesla veteran CFO Deepak Ahuja was re-retiring. Having previously retired in 2015, Deepak returned to Tesla in 2017 to replace outgoing CFO Jason Wheeler. Ahuja will remain with the company for several months as CFO and then become a senior advisor, while his protege Zach Kirkhorn fills his role. The market reacted negatively to the news, with Tesla trading down 4.5% premarket.
So Rei is our official Tesla investment liason? (Score:2, Funny)
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Three times, actually. There was a profitable quarter before the run-up to Model 3.
But yeah, it's mostly a sea of red ink so far.
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Checked the REI track definitely an Tesla fan big time but even a broken clock can be right twice a day. The Tesla short was all about buying Tesla on the cheap after financially crushing the company, a nasty plot schemed up by a car company and hedge fund managers, it failed and people should have been prosecuted including at the SEC because what they did to back the shorters against company investors, umm.
Yet still cars will be the smaller part of Tesla revenue versus power systems. Suburban distributed
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I see you haven't looked into Solar City at all
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If Rei could just be a bit more objective and fair she would be a great source of Tesla info. She clearly spends a lot of time learning everything she can about the inner workings of the company, with some insightful and interesting posts...
But then ruins it by idolizing Musk and their cars to a ridiculous degree. Also their quarterly earnings aren't particularly interesting.
There are some forums where people have really interesting discussions about the current crop of EVs. it's a shame we can't do that th
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*Tesla turns around and makes profit*
*article reports that Tesla had turned around and made a profit*
REEEEE puff piece REEEEE
Whatever you say, Screechy McAutism.
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The actual news story (and the one the rest of the media actually reported) is that Tesla missed expectations on profitability -- rather badly, actually ($1.93 per share rather than $2.20, and on more revenue than expected, which makes the profit margin even lower than expected). And that performance resulted from continuing to skim the high-margin cars off the Model 3 backlog, so there are no structural reasons for it to get any better, and plenty of reasons (e.g., when people actually start needing signi
Rei has been up front about buying TSLA (Score:2)
If your assertion is that it is a Tesla employee, [citation needed]
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I always thought that, nice to see it official.
Yes, every poster on here is some official liaison officer for some corporation. There's no such thing as personal interest articles anymore.
Does anyone disagree? Who's paying to shill against me?
Mind you I do like how Rei is rubbing the smug shits' on Slashdot who insisted that Tesla would be bankrupt next month (for the past 24 months running) noses in it.
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TeslaÃ(TM)s claims of a profit are fraudulent.
[citation needed]
[browser settings change needed]
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âoeYouâ(TM)re a faggotâ sent from my iPhone.
If Slashdot has an irony achievement, I vote that you receive it.
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Except for, you know, the reported GAAP profit.
Can't find any more FUD, so now you just go for denial and lies?
I regret (Score:1, Troll)
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So, all those post you made that slammed Tesla were posted while you were short on TSLA?
Yeah, I have no sympathy for your losses.
Or are you just trolling?
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The post is dripping with sarcasm.... I think? :D
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He's trolling. That's what he does.
Every once in a while he mistakenly posts something insightful while trolling. This is not one of those times.
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Re-retiring (Score:4, Insightful)
Thanks for the good summary. I read stories this morning along the lines of "Management Shake-Up at Tesla, CFO Out, Replaced by VP of Finance."
I shall now go mark those news sources as "fake news, shorts colluders."
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No, it is perfectly normal for a CFO to re-retire. I mean after all, he is 56, and these guys aren't in it for the money. Why would a CFO want to stick around a company that is going to make billions? They aren't interested in stuff like that.
What if he already has more money than he cares for in the bank and would rather spend his time sipping margaritas by the beach? What if, even though he leaves, he keeps a substantial part of his stock and will still make millions if Tesla's stock goes up?
I mean, you may be right, but just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean something fishy is happening. I recently left a position as CIO at a startup where I had 4% of stock (which I lost with my decision) because I disagreed with one of my partn
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No, it is perfectly normal for a CFO to re-retire. I mean after all, he is 56, and these guys aren't in it for the money. Why would a CFO want to stick around a company that is going to make billions? They aren't interested in stuff like that.
I imagine that "Senior Advisor" role comes with a hefty paycheque and less stress.
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A very traditional Indian would start disavowing worldly pleasures and lose the "attachments or bonds" with the material, the mundane, the carnal self and prepare to connect with the spirit
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More importantly, it would mean that any unvested stock awards continue to vest.
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Perhaps he doesn't want to be the richest guy in the graveyard?
If he's got a nice comfortable pile, maybe he'd like to go live life. As a C-level exec, I'm sure he's got plenty of vested stock grants to rest on as well.
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Tesla: set up by cowboys, run by Indians? (Score:1)
I'kk get my coat
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Also true, he did not.
But what he did deliver, 50K car 1 year ago is still a stunning achievement far beyond anything the traditional car companies managed to do so far.
There are some exciting announcements from them. There are some exciting products from them. Jaguar I-Pace, Hyundai Kona... Whether they beat Tesla, or they coexist with Tesla, or they reduce Tesla to be some boutique ven
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The Kona sits in a somew
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Earlier they were going for some sort of compromised compliance cars. First time they are seriously attempting to compete. They wisely are not taking Tesla head on, but try to find a niche where they can operate. That is the important thing.
At the end of the day, if Tesla gets 20% of the world market for all automobiles, that would be immense, beyond the wildest imaginations of the most passionate supporters of Tesla. So even such a wildly pro Tesla sc
More Info (Score:4, Interesting)
Their earnings report says they plan to begin tooling for the Model Y this year, and 70% of its parts will be in common with the Model 3, which should lead to a quicker ramp-up than the Model 3 had. They're also still claiming to be working on the Semi, and are going to seriously ramp up solar roof production this year.
This is actually very nice (Score:5, Informative)
Elon Musk have been extremely clear, from the very beginning, that Tesla was a private bet almost sure to fail, but still worthwhile in order to speed up the transition away from ICE cars. The fact that they now seem to be able to actually make this a sustainable business is great!
Full disclosure: I'm a Norwegian electrical engineer who waited close to 25 years before the first 4x4 long range EV, i.e. a Tesla Model S70D was announced, we have used that as our only car for 3 years now.
Tesla is of course one of the best-selling car brands in Norway due to our extreme EV incentives, which include no toll road fees, mostly free parking, very low road tax, all on top of zero import duties or sales tax. With 98%++ of our electricity coming from hydro, this is a very nice situation indeed. Currently well over half of all new cars here are pure EVs (a majority) or plug-in hybrids, with ICE cars making up the remaining third or so.
Terje Mathisen
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And here I thought it was about saving the planet! Who knew?
Re:This is actually very nice (Score:4)
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Apparently! As long as you can afford a $60,000+ car you can have it all!
You can have it all for much less than that when you're not being a disingenuous arse.
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Petroleum exports are 17% of GDP, 21% of total state revenue and a whooping 43% of total exports!
https://www.norskpetroleum.no/... [norskpetroleum.no]
Oil exports are taxed at 78%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Your electricity might be coming from Hydro but the money that paid for the car and continues to subsidise it co
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3. Musk doesn’t get a flying fuck about climate change. If he did, he wouldn’t be making frivolous 20 mile flights in his private jet [arstechnica.com].
Or maybe he has a sense of proportion and understands that his private jet is a drop in the bucket compared to the fact that he's been a huge factor in changing the automotive world for the better.
Individual actions are nice and all, but they are dwarfed by changes to standards and to industry practices.
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3. Musk doesn’t get a flying fuck about climate change. If he did, he wouldn’t be making frivolous 20 mile flights in his private jet [arstechnica.com].
Or maybe he has a sense of proportion and understands that his private jet is a drop in the bucket compared to the fact that he's been a huge factor in changing the automotive world for the better.
Individual actions are nice and all, but they are dwarfed by changes to standards and to industry practices.
So, as individuals, we are all ok to keep driving gas guzzlers?
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You mean industry standards like quality control, doors that open in the cold, and trunks that keep water off of your belongings?
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That's an interesting reason to insult someone. You're entertaining.
"In early Series A funding, Tesla Motors was joined by Elon Musk, J. B. Straubel and Ian Wright, all of whom are retrospectively allowed to call themselves co-founders of the company."
SP500 not in 2019 April (Score:3)
Market will anticipate it, index funds would have buy some 6 billion in TSLA stock. And steady purchase thereafter. But it is not something that trigger any kind of short squeeze of any kind.
Already big smart shorts have closed their positions. 41 million TSLA shares were shorted in Jun 2018. Now the number is around 24 million. Still high, but the trend is down. Two more months it might not be the most heavily shorted stock in the market.
Elon is surprisingly well behaved. If his demeanor is any indication, the company is doing very well.
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Stock price influences cost of capital. Any company depending on fresh capital could be seriously affected by short and slander schemes, (the opposite of pump and dump schemes). Most vulnerable to rumor mill are the banks and insurance companies. So much so, the banks are federally insured to some extent and heavily regulated with regards to capital requirements. Insurance companies are also seriously r
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As with all things, context matters.
If you have $900M in convertible bonds coming due, and the short float is dragging your stock price under the conversion price, it can matter very much.
That's $900M coming out of cash on hand, rather than issuing stock certificates.
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Amazon and Apple are not highly shorted. They are both at about 1 day to cover.
I did make a few thousand last year from a successful short of Sears, but I never posted negative information about Sears without also stating that I held a short position.
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This will not affect the day to day operation. Of course morale will suffer, some vendors will balk supplying, all kinds of secondary things will happen.
But back in Dec18 it said it is going to convert only 50% of the bonds. C
stock market is da suxxorz (Score:2)
what the hell, nothing but good news, one tidbit about the CFO re-retiring (really, you should have seen it comming that this was only a short stint) and the tesla stock still drops!
meanwhile after facebook financial announcements, the stock goes up, while it's probably the most scummy company on the planet hated by most of its users!
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Tesla said 2019 Q1 profit will be small. Not big enough to have positive earnings in the trailing four quarters. Which means it wont get into SP500 in April 19. It will definitely get into SP500 in July 2019, when the 2018Q2 loss of 700 million rolls of the time window. So the market is readjusting the price for the 3 month delay, that is all.
Things so good. CFO retired .... TWICE!!!! (Score:1)
Tesla Click bait mania seems to be abating (Score:2)
It has barely gathered 50 comments over 12 hours.
Looks like most paid trolls have been reassigned and only the self motivated trolls are infesting these threads.
Looks like Tesla will be left alone soon, like Ford or GM. Of interest to a few people and does not attract clicks.
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Demand? (Score:2)
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Demand isn't there, you can find people really into hating on Tesla who take pics of lots full of cars sitting there, batteries probably being permanently damaged from the cold during the polar vortex.
I think the early adopters (or rabid fan boys) already have their model 3s, but objective car buyers would probably do some research and see they're actually pretty shitty cars with incredibly poor service if you need parts / get in accident. I'm not pro or anti Tesla, I drove a friend's model S and it's fun