Tesla Inc. (TSLA)


January 3, 2024

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly on Tesla’s Record 4Q23 Deliveries (GLJ’s Quick Take)

By Gordon L. Johnson II

So… Tesla’s Q4 Delivery Number Came in a Bit Ahead of our Est. (and mostly in line with Consensus); what’s our Quick Take? Yesterday, ahead of the market open, TSLA reported 4Q23 deliveries of 484.507K…

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October 19, 2023

Our Key Takeaways from Tesla’s 3Q23 Results Where Auto Gross Margins (ex. Credits) Came in at 16.3%, or -172bps Below Consensus, & E. Musk Said his Cars are Still “Too Expensive”

By Gordon L. Johnson II

So How Did Tesla’s 3Q23 Results Come in vs. the Street’s Drastically Reduced Estimates? Last night, TSLA reported auto revs/auto-gross-margins (excl. credits) of $19.6bn/16.3%, missing Cons.’ $20.9bn/18.02% ests. by -6.44% and -172bps, respectively (we focus…

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October 17, 2023

Q3 Earnings Preview: Our Updated Tesla “Bottoms-Up” Earnings Driver Model Points to Misses Across the Board Tomorrow (i.e., Revs/Margins/Non-GAAP EPS Likely Set to Disappoint)

By Gordon L. Johnson II

What’s Up? In this note, we provide updates on: (a) our bottoms-up earnings driver model for TSLA, to include our updated 3Q23E, 2023E, 2024E, and 2025E earnings estimates, (b) wait times for new TSLA orders…

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October 2, 2023

Tesla and the “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” Q3 Delivery Result – and No, The Miss is Not the Result of Line “Upgrades”

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Tesla Reports Q3 Production/Deliveries of 430.488K/435.059K, Missing the Cons’ est. of 461.992K/456.722K by a Mile. In this note, we discuss our views on TSLA’s just-reported 3Q23 production/delivery ests., which we previewed 9/18/23 when we said…

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September 18, 2023

Tesla Can No Longer Grow at its 50%/yr “Mirage” Without a Much Cheaper Car it Won’t Have for Yrs in a Best-Case Scenario & Q3 Results Shaping up to be Big Disappointment

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Tesla Has a Q3 Demand and Earnings Problem that Many Seem to Want to Ignore (for now). In this note, in addition to updating our bottom-up earnings driver model for TSLA’s 2023E and 2024E-25E earnings…

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August 8, 2023

Our Take on Tesla Announcing its 4th CFO in 6 Years (or 3rd in 4 Years), its New CFO (who was the Top Accountant at SolarCity when the Company was Credibly Alleged to have Engaged in Tax Fraud), & This Week’s China Sales

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla’s CFO of Four Years, Announces his Immediate/Unexpected Departure Effective 8/4/23. Yesterday we learned that TSLA’s “young” 39yr old CFO decided to leave the company, unexpectedly (given, as recently as May, according to…

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July 20, 2023

Q2 Results Show Tesla is Simply a “Car Company” Trading at 70x Earnings when Other “Car Companies” Trade at 6x-8x Earnings

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Were Tesla’s “Other Income” Line Flat QoQ, EPS Would have Missed by “a Mile” (i.e., the beat came, entirely, from a one-time item). In 2021-22, TSLA benefitted from both an automotive parts shortage and automobile…

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July 17, 2023

2Q23 Earnings Preview – We Expect Largely Inline Q2 Results, But Does the Auto Supply Chain “Freeing Up” Mean Tesla’s Margins Are Structurally (a lot) Lower Than Consensus is Currently Modeling?

By Gordon L. Johnson II

The Extent of the Q2 Price Cut will Determine Tesla’s Fate Regarding a 2Q23 “Modest” Miss and/or “Huge” Miss. In this note we detail while we expect TSLA’s 2Q23E revs/EPS to come in at $24.4bn/$0.80…

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May 23, 2023

Tesla’s Week 7 China Sales Disappoint, Forcing the Company to Export Made-in-China (“MIC”) Cars from Shanghai to Canada for the First Time Ever (this is not what growth companies do)

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Tesla Reports Week Seven Domestic China Sales. Just now, we got updated insurance data from China regarding TSLA’s week seven domestic China sales. And, the numbers were lackluster at best. That is, with 10.2K cars…

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May 16, 2023

How Are Sales & Inventory Trending for Tesla in China, the U.S., and Europe Quarter-to-Date & What’s Our Latest Est. on 2Q23E GAAP EPS?

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Checkup Time for Tesla in its Core Three Markets of China, the U.S., and Europe. In the following, we provide an update on China (to include today’s weekly insurance data for the week of May…

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April 26, 2023

Update on Tesla’s Standing in the Chinese Auto Market (to Include Weekly Sales & 1Q23 Market Share Fluctuations) as well as US/EU Inventory

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Notwithstanding Speculation about its Early “Demise”, Chinese Data on Weekly Cars Sales is Still Available. Despite claims by many, including GLJ Research, that China was discontinuing its weekly reporting on automobile sales, the data set…

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April 19, 2023

1Q23E Earnings Preview – We Believe a Miss is Likely on Deck (we see Q1 Revs/Margins Missing Cons, & Negative Free Cash Flow)

By Gordon L. Johnson II

After Updating our Bottom-Up Model, we See Risk(s) to Consensus’ 1Q23 Estimates. In what follows, we provide the key assumptions that drive our 1Q23E rev/adj.-EPS ests. of $22.590bn/$0.64 vs. Cons’ $23.365bn/$0.86 ests. (i.e., a miss),…

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April 3, 2023

Tesla Reports 422.9K Cars Delivered vs. Factset Est. of 430K (a miss) & Days Sales in Inventory Spike for Record 4th Straight Quarter

By Gordon L. Johnson II

If it Wasn’t Clear Before, it Now is… Tesla Has a Demand Problem. Yesterday, while many of us were catching up on NBA basketball/lawn-work, TSLA reported 1Q23 car deliveries of 422.9K cars (where the sale…

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March 28, 2023

In Our Final Update for the Qtr, We Cut Our Q1 Delivery Est. Sharply to Reflect an Earlier-Than-Expected Start of the Q2 “Demand Crush”

By Gordon L. Johnson II

We Cut our 1Q23 Delivery Estimate by -5.6% to Reflect Early Start to Demand “Crush” in China + EU. Overnight, we got an update on TSLA’s sale of vehicles in China (where demand fell -15.1%…

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March 23, 2023

Will Tesla’s 1Q23 Auto Deliveries Actually Surprise to the Upside Due to “Otherworldly” Price Cuts Since January?

By Gordon L. Johnson II

Are Tesla’s Car Sales Slated to Pull Ahead of the Current Consensus Estimate of 419.706K? In short, after an extensive overview of all of TSLA’s key markets last night (China + EU + USA +…

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