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Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

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Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#11

Post by dkokelley »

txttran wrote: post #5
DigitalSea wrote: post #2

Tesla is a startup and at present, I can name few "startups" on the scale of Tesla who aren't losing money. Look at the likes of Twitter, Spotify and Quora, large user bases and are technically making money but still not turning a profit. Tesla is no different and to be honest, has a good chance of succeeding. Elon Musk is one talented guy who has investors swooning over him to give him investment. Looks like the dow…

A post-IPO, $21B company is still a startup?

The auto industry works a little differently. Some of Tesla's competitors have been in business for over 100 years, making primarily the same product today. Tech companies today exist in industries that didn't exist even 15 years ago.

Tesla Motors has only been around for 10 years (founded 2003), and their first product didn't sell until 5 years later. I think it's safe to say that Tesla Motors is still a startup. They are a startup in an industry that measures time in decades.

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#12

Post by sprizzle »

Tesla's still a young company and is bound to have some quarters ending in losses for various reasons as they try to reach economies of scale. As an investor, I still feel confident that Elon Musk's "master plan" (see: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-p...) for Tesla is starting to get underway with the latest developments on Model X (and I'm sure other models as well). The future is bright for Tesla, this loss isn't necessarily a sign of decline.

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#13

Post by dman »

DigitalSea wrote: post #7
txttran wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A post-IPO, $21B company is still a startup?

Whenever people question the definition of something being a startup I just point them to this wonderful Quora answer: http://www.quora.com/Entrepreneurship/What-is-the-proper-def... Dave McClure makes a fair point that until a company works out the following three things, they're a startup, not a business. 1. What its product is, 2. Who its customers are. 3. How to make money. So yes, a post-IPO company valued at $2…

Applying limits : as a large company unravels towards bankruptcy, it's business plans evaporating to ether it rapidly approaches the hallowed title of a startup. By the above metric sun was a startup post 2002, AMD is still a startup, Blackberry is a startup...

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#14

Post by jfoster »

txttran wrote: post #5
DigitalSea wrote: post #2

Tesla is a startup and at present, I can name few "startups" on the scale of Tesla who aren't losing money. Look at the likes of Twitter, Spotify and Quora, large user bases and are technically making money but still not turning a profit. Tesla is no different and to be honest, has a good chance of succeeding. Elon Musk is one talented guy who has investors swooning over him to give him investment. Looks like the dow…

A post-IPO, $21B company is still a startup?

Depends on your definition of startup, doesn't it? Some people prefer a definition based on growth rate. Another definition that occurs to me is a company that could perhaps one day be massively profitable, but is currently losing money.

To me, Tesla does seem to have IPOed unusually early. The "usual route" I have in mind is that tech companies typically acquire some very significant market share before their IPO. Tesla look like they're still getting started.

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#15

Post by tokenadult »

I read a financial newspaper report earlier today predicting good results for Tesla for its quarterly earnings report today, and thus a likely continued strong performance of Tesla stock. Seeing the headline of the article kindly submitted here prompted me to read the fine article, of course, and also to check for other news stories from later hours of today about Tesla.

In approximate chronological order:

"Tesla Motors stock slides despite delivering 5,500 cars in third quarter"

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24460515/tesla-motors...

"Tesla Beats Expectations On Record Sales, Investors Decide To Sell Anyway"

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/11/05/live-tes...

"Tesla loses $38 million; adjusted results beat forecast"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/11/05/tesla-ea...

"Tesla outlook, deliveries fall short amid capacity constraints"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/06/us-autos-tesla-idU...

So a lot of investors saw news about the same earnings report, but some considered differing additional sources of information, or simply interpreted the same report differently. Different investors have differing investment goals, so it's not completely surprising that the same news can prompt some investors to sell while others hold and a few even buy.

It will probably take a few more days to be sure what interpretation of Tesla's news is most persuasive to the largest number of investors. (Disclosure: I do not own stock in Tesla nor do I own stock in any other company. My son the hacker has an investment portfolio, but I have no idea what is in it.)

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#16

Post by jusben1369 »

Production in the quarter significantly exceeded deliveries in order to fill the pipeline of vehicles in transit to Europe and provide cars for service and marketing uses.”

- I'm not sure but does that mean they built a boat load (pun intended!) more cars than they sold? That would impact costs vs revenues/sales.

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#17

Post by nonchalance »

jonknee wrote: post #6

In one version of accounting... In another they made $16M. What's clear is Tesla has been dramatically more successful at selling an electric car than any other company.

The problem is that the current stock price implies that they will be dramatically more successful than any other car company (electric or otherwise). It's all relative to expectations.

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#18

Post by nonchalance »

sprizzle wrote: post #12

Tesla's still a young company and is bound to have some quarters ending in losses for various reasons as they try to reach economies of scale. As an investor, I still feel confident that Elon Musk's "master plan" (see: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-p... ) for Tesla is starting to get underway with the latest developments on Model X (and I'm sure other models as well). The future is bright…

The future is bright for Tesla, but not necessarily for $TSLA (which is all the financial analysts really care about)

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#19

Post by 001sky »

They note that the reason bulls are expecting deliveries of 6,000 or more vehicles is because of issued VINs, but they believe that many of the vehicles which have been produced were used for showrooms or loaner vehicles at Tesla’s service centers or are still in transit en route to delivery.

People are really reading into things here. Expecting a company to beat guidance by 20% per quarter is alot to ask, but i suppose the type of momentum you need to bid on an already expensive stock. [They moved 5500 units on guidance of 5000].

Re: Tesla lost $38M in third quarter, stock tumbles over 12 percent

#20

Post by ISL »

nonchalance wrote: post #18
sprizzle wrote: post #12

Tesla's still a young company and is bound to have some quarters ending in losses for various reasons as they try to reach economies of scale. As an investor, I still feel confident that Elon Musk's "master plan" (see: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-p... ) for Tesla is starting to get underway with the latest developments on Model X (and I'm sure other models as well). The future is bright…

The future is bright for Tesla, but not necessarily for $TSLA (which is all the financial analysts really care about)

This distinction is so important, and so few people really grok it.

Long-term, Tesla appears to have a future, but where the stock price will settle remains to be seen.

Market capitalizations:

Ford: $67B

GM: $51B

Toyota: $203B

Honda: $71B

Volkswagen: $114B

Tesla: $19B (at ~$155)

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