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Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

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Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially with SpaceX. He's pushing his engineers hard to get some pretty cool stuff done, and hopefully humanity benefits from it in the long run.

It's technology. Once it exists, it will continue existing. Every generation must use it wisely and ethically.

How were the pyramids built?

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#22

Is it just me reading too much financial news or does "beats estimates" sound like it was better than estimates? Loss was 69 cents vs 53 cents expected. Revenues beat estimates, though.

They beat loss estimates because they spent $500m [0] on capex instead of $1000m [1].

Not sure if I buy "got better deals from suppliers" story, but it would be awesome if it was true. Most likely they've hit delays with suppliers.

[0] Q4 2016 update from shareholder letter on http://ir.tesla.com/

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-capex-goal-means-1-bill...

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially with SpaceX. He's pushing his engineers hard to get some pretty cool stuff done, and hopefully humanity benefits from it in the long run.

It's technology. Once it exists, it will continue existing. Every generation must use it wisely and ethically.

Not so sure about it. Look at Concorde.

Musk actually said that technology does not move forward if there is nobody (or no company or no government) to push it forward.

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#24

People who lose money shorting Tesla are losing their shirts for the same reason as those who shorted Amazon: cash flow + growth matters more than profitability, PE ratios, or EPS. Tesla's car business is cash flow positive but the quarterly losses are due to infrastructure investments. This is how finance can be more subtle than meets the eye. Tesla's car business is very profitable: Tesla also reported an automotiv…

> People who lose money shorting Tesla are losing their shirts

I don't follow. Tesla is down 1.4%. People who shorted Tesla made money today. Plus a lot of people made money shorting Amazon over Amazon's life.

Shorting a stock has less to do with a company's business plan/success and more to do with predicting the market itself and how they'll respond to various quarterly results (and the likelihood of such results).

Tesla is mostly just prop in the stock market "game."

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#25

People who lose money shorting Tesla are losing their shirts for the same reason as those who shorted Amazon: cash flow + growth matters more than profitability, PE ratios, or EPS. Tesla's car business is cash flow positive but the quarterly losses are due to infrastructure investments. This is how finance can be more subtle than meets the eye. Tesla's car business is very profitable: Tesla also reported an automotiv…

I see your point, but any company that uses non-GAAP numbers is suspect. Even the gov't is trying to crack down on companies that do it since it invariably is done to make the company look like it's performing better than it is.

Gross margin ignores all the costs not directly associated with producing the vehicle (basically COGS). There are plenty of companies with positive gross margin (even under GAAP) that fail.

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#26

It's fun to read Mark Spiegel's twitter feed. I've never seen someone so desperately try to force a theory. I wonder why some people want to see Tesla fail so badly.

> I wonder why some people want to see Tesla fail so badly.

A regressive mindset.

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#27
post #5

People get upset by the 'superhero' status of Elon Musk. Nerds everywhere worship the guy, buy his cars, watch his SpaceX launches. But honestly, let him have it, I say. He's earning it. He's taking huge risks and succeeding where others weren't willing to try.

> succeeding where others weren't willing to try

Willing, or able.

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially with SpaceX. He's pushing his engineers hard to get some pretty cool stuff done, and hopefully humanity benefits from it in the long run.

It's technology. Once it exists, it will continue existing. Every generation must use it wisely and ethically.

Proof increases investor confidence, but that's hardly everything. Tesla contributes somewhat to open source, but ITAR and shrewdness means a ton of their tech is classified. If they folded, a great deal of that would be bureaucratically inaccessible, gone, or irrelevant. If we wanted to go to the moon again, we would basically have to start over from scratch. The Saturn V plans exist but the infrastructure, manufacturing techniques, and hardware are all gone.

Plans are 10% of actually building something, at that level. Materials aren't legos, each product needs to be qualified and have its idiosyncrasies addressed. Even at the consumer level, when you change manufacturers you often have to retool your process because while the specs are the same, you're delivered something different.

Keeping technology at the same level requires ongoing engineering. When that engineering is removed, the technology decays. It very quickly becomes a matter of reinvention rather than rebuilding.

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#29

Is it just me reading too much financial news or does "beats estimates" sound like it was better than estimates? Loss was 69 cents vs 53 cents expected. Revenues beat estimates, though.

They beat loss estimates because they spent $500m [0] on capex instead of $1000m [1]. Not sure if I buy "got better deals from suppliers" story, but it would be awesome if it was true. Most likely they've hit delays with suppliers. [0] Q4 2016 update from shareholder letter on http://ir.tesla.com/ [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-capex-goal-means-1-bill...

Not sure if I buy "got better deals from suppliers" story

Or they just shifted capex spending so that it doesn't fall on this quarter.

I'm not knocking Tesla for doing this, all companies do this (shift costs and revenue around to meet earnings expectations).

Re: Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates

#30

People who lose money shorting Tesla are losing their shirts for the same reason as those who shorted Amazon: cash flow + growth matters more than profitability, PE ratios, or EPS. Tesla's car business is cash flow positive but the quarterly losses are due to infrastructure investments. This is how finance can be more subtle than meets the eye. Tesla's car business is very profitable: Tesla also reported an automotiv…

> People who lose money shorting Tesla are losing their shirts I don't follow. Tesla is down 1.4%. People who shorted Tesla made money today. Plus a lot of people made money shorting Amazon over Amazon's life. Shorting a stock has less to do with a company's business plan/success and more to do with predicting the market itself and how they'll respond to various quarterly results (and the likelihood of such results).…

It's currently up 1.65% in after hours trading.
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