Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted out Monday afternoon that he would be on his company’s upcoming fourth-quarter conference call which happens around late January.
That’s probably bullish for Tesla (ticker: TSLA) stock in the short run. It might mean things are going. It could be bullish for the long run too, depending on what he says.
Musk wasn’t on the third-quarter earnings call after telling investors he wouldn’t be doing all future calls back in July. It now looks like he took simply took a one-quarter break.
Musk announced his intention while responding to a tweet on Twitter (TWTR). “This year has been such a supply chain nightmare [and] it’s not over,” wrote Musk. “I will provide an updated product roadmap on next earnings call.”
The supply chain nightmare doesn’t sound great. But supply chain woes—including higher costs and semiconductor shortages—have been with all auto makers all year long. That isn’t new. The product roadmap has the potential to make big news.
Musk will probably update investors about the timing from the company’s pickup truck dubbed, of course, Cybertruck. A truck update should be the minimum investors can expect.
Bigger news would be an update about a new model—a EV that starts around $25,000. Tesla has hinted at that price point in the past and Chinese EV maker XPeng (XPEV) launched a $25,000 sedan in October. Lower priced EVs open up more of the overall auto market to EV makers.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment about the tweet or product update.
There is another reason Musk showing up is good news: He probably wouldn’t show up if numbers were looking weak. That’s speculation, but Tesla bear Gordon Johnson from GLJ Research wrote Tuesday that he expects a big number for fourth-quarter deliveries. Johnson projects about 280,000 deliveries, roughly 20,000 higher than consensus estimates.
If Tesla deliveries 280,000 vehicles, it would push full-year deliveries north of 900,000 and up about 80% compared with 2020.
Still, Johnson rates Tesla shares Sell. He believes Tesla’s profit margins will fall as the company opens two new manufacturing plants in Germany and Austin. He’s also worried that Tesla will lose market share as EV models from other auto makers hit the market. Johnson’s price target for shares is a Street-low $67.
Tesla stock isn’t doing much following the tweet. It came out late Monday, but the stock didn’t appear to react in the final moments of trading—shares were already up about 5% for the day Monday.
Tesla shares are down about 0.5% in premarket trading Tuesday. That isn’t so bad. U.S. stock futures are lower on renewed fears about the Omicron variant of Covid. S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
