Tesla is losing its dip buyers as major Elon Musk fans move to SpaceX instead, so the stock keeps dropping. It fell 14% to $320 even though earnings were decent, with GAAP EPS down 3% to $0.33. That still leaves Tesla at a 242 PE. x.com
John Tinsman
Founder of AOT Invest, Portfolio Manager of AOTG/AOTS ETFs
Tesla's valuation is gradually starting to matter, with shares at 140 times a 2027 non-GAAP EPS consensus that likely gets cut. The stock fell 4% after a gross margin and EPS miss. Many fans reflexively buy post-earnings drops no matter the results, which creates opportunities. x.com x.com x.com
Tesla's falling energy and storage revenue undercuts what bulls call its next growth case. In Q3, that revenue fell 16% year over year; auto revenue fell 3%, operating income 56%, GAAP net income 43%, GAAP EPS 44% and free cash flow 62%. These terrible results make $500 a share look unlikely, even though the stock has not fallen 20%. x.com x.com
Tesla's growing FSD subscriber base supports the longer-term autonomy case, but the AI build is taxing cash now. Paid FSD seats reached about 1.74 million, up 67%, while free cash flow fell 62% to $1.53 billion despite an EPS and sales beat. Post-report weakness is a discount discussion only for holders able to weather another weak cash quarter; check FSD net adds and FCF before leaning hard. A possible SpaceX combination is not part of this case. x.com
Tesla's $1.5T Elon premium looks unjustified while Musk seems to favor SpaceX for the AI compute buildout. Tesla shareholders missed almost the entire AI boom; owning xAI and building that infrastructure might have doubled Tesla's stock. Q3 adjusted EPS was $0.48, down 4% year over year; if Tesla were a non-Musk company, four such quarters at 10x earnings would mean $19.20 a share versus $386. Long-term company prospects remain attractive, but the stock is still not worth buying back. x.com … Show more
Tesla's low forward growth and negative free cash flow weaken its long-term appeal. Next-twelve-month revenue growth is 8.9%, while increasing competition threatens its moat. Tesla is noise for now with Elon focused more on SpaceX; its ADR reading of 2.48 is below the 4-plus needed to turn a day trade into a swing, though earnings may change that. x.com x.com
SpaceX's near-term earnings growth and potentially underappreciated compute ramp favor it over Tesla if their merger takes longer. SpaceX could exceed $200 by Q4 earnings; if the deal is announced within roughly a month, Tesla is the better trade because SpaceX would have to pay a premium of $420-$500+ a share. Tesla's robotaxi and humanoid earnings impact is still many quarters away, though both companies have longer-term upside. x.com x.com
Tesla's 200x earnings multiple asks too much of weak current results and speculative future products. Third-quarter revenue fell 0.4% year over year and EBIT missed estimates by 25%, despite gross-margin and cash-flow beats. Robotaxis, humanoids and other future plans may have appeal, but impressive parts of the business do not make the stock worth its current price. x.com x.com x.com
Tesla's aerial flips and wall-driving have little use for ordinary customers, making earnings from the demonstration hard to see and pointing to a lower share price. If the widely expected SpaceX merger is all-stock, a 10% lower Tesla price at signing would give Musk about 0.5 percentage points more of the combined company, at other Tesla shareholders' expense; he owns roughly 40% of SpaceX but 20% of Tesla. x.com x.com
A SpaceX acquisition of Tesla now seems very likely, at over $500 per share within the next 12 months. Investors are also bullish on robots and robotaxis, so Tesla's fundamentals and valuation do not seem to matter now and have not for some time. x.com
Tesla's share price looks excessive against GM's earnings. GM earned about ten times Tesla's EPS yet trades roughly $300 a share lower; matching GM's share price would mean an 80% fall for Tesla despite its earnings being 90% lower. x.com