SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Tesla Inc. set a record for deliveries and production in the first quarter, beating analysts' estimates as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk prepares to begin building the Model 3 in July.
The maker of electric cars and energy-storage devices shipped just over 25,000 vehicles in the year's first three months, Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said in a statement Sunday. That topped the average forecast of 24,200 from three analysts and should bolster confidence in Tesla's target of delivering as many as 50,000 autos in this year's first half.
"It's all about the Model 3 right now, but this is very good news," Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., said in an interview. "25,000 units is the best we could have thought, and people are looking at Model 3 for growth."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @07:34PM (5 children)
Wall Street seems to think Tesla is a good bet, although I have trouble seeing why. Recently the total value of all their shares (market capitalization) exceeded Ford Motor Company. Note that Ford makes about 100x more cars (in round numbers) year on year. Or in another comparison I saw somewhere recently, Ford makes more pickup trucks in a few weeks than all the cars Tesla made last year.
It's true that Tesla is also in solar and batteries, but it's not making much profit there.
Is Ford undervalued or is Tesla wildly overvalued?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @08:35PM (4 children)
You can't compare Tesla's valuation to Ford. Yes, they are both auto makers, but they are in very different stages of life.
Tesla is a relatively early stage of growth with a lot of upside, at least that is what Wall-Street is betting on.
Ford, however, is a very well established company that doesn't really have much room for growth.
A way to look at it is that Wall street is betting that Tesla *will be* bigger than Ford, not valuing its current production.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @09:39PM (3 children)
But for Tesla to approach the size of Ford is going to take many years (if ever), I mean 100x capacity is ~100 new big factories for $B each. If this is really what the market "thinks", then it is looking very long term--which is exactly the opposite of the prevailing MBA/management style of increasing profits quarter by quarter.
How is "long term valuation" vs "short term profit seeking" rationalized by investors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @11:16PM (2 children)
Tesla's throughput of vehicles is something like 5% of Ford's? 2.5%? I forget, somewhere above 1 and below 10%.
But Tesla has the (giga)factories of the future, the patents for the next 5y+, and is NOT just an automotive business (powerwall etc). They are a company making tools for mass and energy delivery and storage.
And almost as importantly, they are growing where others are failing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 05 2017, @03:14AM (1 child)
Except for FCA (Chrysler) and VW (Diesel idiots) I don't think anyone has been failing in the auto business in recent years. Since the Great Recession sales are up every year. But auto is historically cyclical and sales will go down at some point. Tesla isn't big enough to be sucked into the sales results of the whole market yet, but if they keep growing they will be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 05 2017, @10:36PM
I know this is OT, but it is AC all the way down :-)