In terms of minds and numbers, Tesla remains the star of the auto industry.
The market capitalization of Elon Musk’s team was over $532 billion at last checked. Toyota (TM) – Get a free reportSynthetic engine (GM) – Get a free reportford (F) – Get a free report and Volkswagen (VWAGY) – Get a free report far behind with the market value of 199 billion USD, 57 billion USD, 56.5 billion USD and nearly 100 billion USD respectively.
The producer continues to collect trophies and consolidate its position as a world leader in the electric vehicle market. For example, the group accounted for two-thirds of new electric vehicle registrations between January and August in the US, according to data from experience.
Its two models, the Model Y SUV and the Model 3 entry-level sedan, took the first two spots on the list of best-selling electric vehicles in the US market with sales of 134,978 units and 123,634 units, respectively. Ford’s Mach-E SUV ranked third with 25,596 units sold.
And the top 5 is completed by Tesla Model S and Model X. Sure, the competition is growing market sharebut the Austin automaker remains the behemoth of the industry.
$580 billion of market value wiped out
At the same time, in recent months, Tesla’s star is fading. Used to be a daily star on New York Stock Exchange and a bold name on social media, Tesla seems to have almost disappeared, except in the context of the stock market plunge.
Tesla shares are down 52% this year, resulting in a $580 billion drop in market capitalization. By comparison, GM stock has lost 32% of its value this year and Ford stock is down 31%. In the past, the opposite often happened: Tesla performed much better than its rivals and compatriots.
Losing half of its market value, the company was surpassed by Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) – Get a free report, (BRK.B) – Get a free report holding company of legendary investor Warren Buffett, in the ranking of the largest companies on that basis.
Tesla is currently the world’s seventh-largest company with a market capitalization of $534 billion, behind Berkshire, which ranks sixth with $690 billion. Top 5 unchanged: Apple (AAPL) – Get a free reportSaudi Aramco, Microsoft (MSFT) – Get a free reportAlphabet (GOOGLE) – Get a free report and Amazon (AMZN) – Get a free report.
However, the fundamentals of the company are very solid. For the third quarter, Tesla posted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of nearly $5 billion, up 55% year over year, while turnover rose 56% to $21.5 billion.
Tesla delivered 907,573 vehicles in the first nine months of 2022, up 45 percent year-on-year, and produced 927,910 vehicles, up nearly 49 percent.
The company also has a clear roadmap: Tesla on December 1 will deliver its first Semi truck to PepsiCo. (PEP) – Get a free report and in mid-2023 will begin production of the highly anticipated Cybertruck. These will be followed in 2024 by the next-generation Roadster and the first model in the company’s self-driving car lineup. The company also plans to produce Optimus, its humanoid robot, starting in 2023.
Blame Twitter
The resurgence of Covid-19 in China is raising concerns that production at Tesla’s Shanghai factory could be disrupted. But that was not the main factor that led to the stock’s decline, which has been going on for quite a while.
Analysts and investors attribute the stock’s drop to CEO Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
“$TSLA continues to underperform (TSLA -20% vs [Nasdaq 100 Index] +3%) since Elon completed the purchase of TWTR on October 28,” said Tesla investor Gary Black. “This reflects investors’ concern that TWTR will lose money in advertising. fox [revenues] will need more capital from @elonmusk and continued uncertainty about sales and pricing in China.”
Since completing the purchase of the platform for $44 billion on October 27, the billionaire has spent most of his time talking about Twitter. The few rare times he mentioned Tesla’s name was when he asked a question on social media.
Musk is an artist, architect and chief ambassador for Tesla. Before Twitter, the tech mogul promoted the electric-car company almost daily, which helped keep the brand in the conversation.
Since Twitter, the automaker is now less of a priority for Musk, who is trying to find revenue streams to make the microblogging platform profitable.
He’s now devoting all his energy to it — after he caused chaos there less than a month after taking the helm. He fired nearly 70% of the company’s 7,500 employees and reactivated former President Donald Trump’s account. This latest decision worries advertisers, who don’t want their brands to be associated with racist and hateful language and misinformation.
The serial entrepreneur recently admitted that since taking over Twitter, he’s barely slept.
“I have too much work to do, that’s for sure,” Musk said on November 14 during an appearance at B20 Indonesia, a business conference that took place next to the G20 summit in Bali. “I’m working as hard as I can – morning to night, seven days a week.”
A few days earlier, Musk also told attendees of the 29th Annual Baron Investment Conference that his workload had increased from 70 hours a week to 120 hours.
“But, I think once Twitter is set in the right direction, it will be much more manageable than SpaceX or Tesla.”
Black Friday Sale
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