The problem with Tesla is that

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jaster
2021-06-24

The problem with Tesla is that with the shares being as expensive as they are, pretty much everything has to go perfectly moving forward. There is no room for any missteps as the expectation of future success has already been reflected in the share price.

I feel that this is something most Tesla bulls misunderstand. No one is disputing that Tesla is (at least for now) the most prolific EV company, and is involved in many industry sectors with high potential growth. The question really is, is this expectation of future potential earnings really worth the eye-watering valuations that the market has assigned it?

Tesla: A Lesson In Humility

Tesla shares have pulled well back in a months-long period of weakness.With earnings coming up, there looks to be a showdown of bulls and bears on the near-term horizon.I see Tesla's fundamentals - and valuation - as having improved massively in recent months, and I'm therefore still quite bullish.Finally, the elephant in the room is the descending triangle I noted above, and I’ve added some extra bars at the end of the chart to show what the resolution of the triangle might look like. We can se

Tesla: A Lesson In Humility

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No one&nbsp;is disputing that Tesla is (at least for now) the most prolific EV company,&nbsp;and is involved&nbsp;in many industry sectors with&nbsp;high potential growth. The question really is, is this expectation of future potential earnings&nbsp;really worth the eye-watering valuations that the market has assigned it? </body></html>","htmlText":"<html><head></head><body>The problem with Tesla is that with the shares being as expensive as they are, pretty much everything has to go perfectly moving forward. There is no room for any missteps as the expectation of future success has already been reflected in the&nbsp;share price.I feel that this is something most Tesla bulls misunderstand. No one&nbsp;is disputing that Tesla is (at least for now) the most prolific EV company,&nbsp;and is involved&nbsp;in many industry sectors with&nbsp;high potential growth. The question really is, is this expectation of future potential earnings&nbsp;really worth the eye-watering valuations that the market has assigned it? </body></html>","text":"The problem with Tesla is that with the shares being as expensive as they are, pretty much everything has to go perfectly moving forward. There is no room for any missteps as the expectation of future success has already been reflected in the share price. I feel that this is something most Tesla bulls misunderstand. No one is disputing that Tesla is (at least for now) the most prolific EV company, and is involved in many industry sectors with high potential growth. The question really is, is this expectation of future potential earnings really worth the eye-watering valuations that the market has assigned it?","highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":7,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/128585369","repostId":1176854050,"repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1176854050","pubTimestamp":1624506221,"share":"https://www.laohu8.com/m/news/1176854050?lang=&edition=full","pubTime":"2021-06-24 11:43","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Tesla: A Lesson In Humility","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1176854050","media":"seekingalpha","summary":"Tesla shares have pulled well back in a months-long period of weakness.With earnings coming up, there looks to be a showdown of bulls and bears on the near-term horizon.I see Tesla's fundamentals - and valuation - as having improved massively in recent months, and I'm therefore still quite bullish.Finally, the elephant in the room is the descending triangle I noted above, and I’ve added some extra bars at the end of the chart to show what the resolution of the triangle might look like. We can se","content":"Summary\n<ul>\n <li>Tesla shares have pulled well back in a months-long period of weakness.</li>\n <li>With earnings coming up, there looks to be a showdown of bulls and bears on the near-term horizon.</li>\n <li>I see Tesla's fundamentals - and valuation - as having improved massively in recent months, and I'm therefore still quite bullish.</li>\n</ul>\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/16088600ba424779ab370711976bff68\" tg-width=\"768\" tg-height=\"397\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">AdrianHancu/iStock Editorial via Getty Images\nSometimes in investing, our thesis, no matter how much we believe in it, doesn’t work. I’ve experienced that countless times personally, and I think pretty much everyone who tries their hand at growing capital through the financial markets does as well. The important thing is not to fall in love with a stock and let it destroy your portfolio, and in the case of EV mothershipTesla(TSLA), I certainly had my fair share of practice at letting go of a failed thesis recently.\nBack inearly April, I said it was time to buy Tesla based upon its fairly reliable history of running higher into earnings announcements. The stock was at $691 at the time and did move higher in the next couple of weeks, but as we can see from the below, the move didn’t stick. That caused me to rethink my position in the short-term with Tesla, and now that we are four weeks out from the next earnings report, we have a different situation on our hands.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/54fd49361e0720105b3d38a4c4c88fa1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"615\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: StockCharts\nI’ve annotated several things on the daily chart because the situation is quite interesting for Tesla during this critical period leading up to the next earnings release. The first thing I’ll note is that the accumulation/distribution line remains very strong, having never wavered from its prior levels achieved during the massive rally that took place mostly in 2020. That’s a good sign because the bulls and bears remain roughly equally matched despite a share price that has given the bulls every reason to move on.\nMomentum is more of a mixed picture because the PPO and 14-day RSI are both showing some signs of positive divergence, but also signs that bullish momentum is nowhere near high enough to push the stock into another rally phase. On the divergence side, momentum is gradually moving higher while the share price bounces around, indicating that the worst of the selling is likely done, but that we’re in a digestion period. The 14-day RSI hasn’t yet crested the centerline in earnest, which again means that bullish momentum is fairly weak.\nOverall, I’d say momentum is showing what you might expect at this stage, which is that the selling pressure has abated, but we’re not in rally mode. Yet.\nFinally, the elephant in the room is the descending triangle I noted above, and I’ve added some extra bars at the end of the chart to show what the resolution of the triangle might look like. We can see at the current slope of the line that the triangle will likely resolve near the end of July, which just so happens to coincide with the earnings release. This is a bearish pattern so I don’t want to make everything seem like sunshine and lollipops, but the rest of the chart is mixed, so we’ll have to wait and see.\nThe earnings report, in my view, is going to be the catalyst one way or the other for the breakout from the triangle. Which direction it will go is anyone’s guess, but I’d be ready for a wild reaction to the earnings release in July.\nIf we look at a weekly chart, I see a much rosier picture.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ef4525c330221c7768acc84c336cd8ef\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"615\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: StockCharts\nWe can see that the stock ran up massively in 2020 and took with it the accumulation/distribution line, as well as the momentum indicators, as you’d expect. But since the selling began, we see signs that the stock has simply worked off its overbought conditions, which looks bullish to me.\nThe 50-week moving average has served as support during this consolidation phase, and it currently stands at $575, so I’d watch that level if we see more selling. On the plus side, the accumulation/distribution line looks beautiful and again, is supportive of this selling being a digestion period rather than the end of the bull market for Tesla.\nMomentum would seem to support that as well, as the PPO and 14-week RSI are back at centerline support. What happens after this is critical, obviously, but the weekly chart doesn’t show Tesla as breaking down on a longer-term basis. The negative divergences we saw since 2020 began have given way to momentum resetting, which often happens before a new bull phase begins. With the earnings report looming in July, and the daily and weekly charts showing different pictures (at least to my eye), it’s going to be an interesting next four weeks for sure.\nFundamentals still bullish\nI’d sum up the chart as having a short-term set of challenges for the bulls, but longer-term, I still see Tesla going higher. On a fundamental basis, I think the conclusion is decidedly more bullish. Let’s start with revenue revisions, which have been nothing short of terrific.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/7297a6360a43284ab70d4caf12d206f3\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"282\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source:Seeking Alpha\nAll years are showing uptrends in revenue revisions, and in particular, the out years. Let us not forget that these positive revisions are occurring during a time when countless startups and internal combustion engine OGs like GM (GM), Ford (F) and Volkswagen (OTCPK:VWAGY) are investing tens of billions of dollars to take market share in EVs. None of this is new and it isn’t like the analyst community is surprised by these investments; Tesla is simply on a tremendous upward trajectory when it comes to growing revenue.\nCanaccordpointed out last week that the Model S Plaid Plus delay was likely due to the 4680 cell design not being ready for prime time. That very well could be the case, and it wouldn’t be the first time Tesla disappointed with a time frame it gave investors. Remember therobo-taxi claim?\nAt any rate, the company’s lineup continues to resonate with customers and now that capacity constraints should lessen greatly over the coming years – new factories in a few parts of the world will help – the path of least resistance for Tesla is no doubt higher. This will only get better as Tesla can decrease the per-unit cost of things like the batteries so it can better compete with mainstream automakers on price, and become a mainstream automaker rather than a niche manufacturer for the well-heeled.\nAnother thing scale is affording Tesla is monumental progress with profit margins. Below we have trailing-twelve-months gross margins, SG&amp;A costs, and EBIT margin as a percentage of revenue.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f9effb44d7bda8f3bdb535e80dd1ac0f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"168\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: TIKR.com\nAll three of these lines are moving in the right direction. Gross margins have been rising thanks to higher sales and production volumes, a trend that should continue so long as sales remain robust. In addition, Tesla is spending much less on an SG&amp;A basis than it used to, which again, is the product of higher sales volume. SG&amp;A used to be in the mid-20% range of revenue, which is unsustainable. Today, it’s only 10%, which means operating margins have gone quite positive, and with room to run in the future.\nMargins have always been an easy thing for the bears to point to, but that is simply no longer the case, and if you have a long holding period, the margin situation is going to work out in the bulls’ favor.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/6401d5cd793a93d0ed6d36f911abdb15\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"283\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source:Seeking Alpha\nThis is all pointing to ever-higher EPS estimates, as we can see above. Analysts continue to try and keep up with Tesla’s upward trajectory, and so long as sales volumes and margins continue their march higher, so will these lines. Again, this is a feather in the cap of the bulls.\nOther considerations\nTesla is not for the faint of heart, because it is volatile and we are at a point in the history of the automobile that an EV gold rush of sorts is occurring. Everyone is investing to win once the internal combustion engine is gone, but Tesla has a massive head start on the competition.\nEven so, there are risks to consider. First, Tesla could lose its technology lead over time as legacy manufacturers throw tens of billions of dollars at R&amp;D on battery technology. Tesla is far and away the superior battery maker today, but that does not guarantee it stays that way. To be clear, I don’t see that as a viable outcome in the near-term, but ten years from now? Twenty? It's a risk.\nAnother risk is that Tesla uses its stock as a piggy bank, issuing shares to fund R&amp;D, factory construction, and the like.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/b8f44f661051d87ad3f2906cabe5479d\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"165\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: TIKR.com\nThe share count has nearly doubled in the past decade, which is pretty ugly from a shareholders’ perspective, as we usually only see this kind of dilution with REITs or BDCs that issue equity capital as a normal course of business. Manufacturing stocks don’t generally do anything like this, but Tesla has made it work. Still, you have to imagine it is possible that over a decade holding period, you’ll be diluted out of half of your ownership in the company. This also creates an uphill battle for EPS as earnings are spread over more and more shares, so I want to be clear this is an unequivocal negative for shareholders. However, let me now point you to what could possibly be the saving grace for this perma-dilution; free cash flow.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0569f35589cc0f82bb006148271df19b\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"170\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: TIKR.com\nTesla’s trailing-twelve-months FCF has improved immensely in recent years, as the company is producing massive amounts of operating cash flow that it never did before, which is owed once again to sales volume and margin growth. Tesla has surpassed the point where it needs to constantly issue capital just to survive because it is creating its own through its operations. This is massively important for the bull case because it means the dilution we’ve seen in recent yearsshouldn’tbe necessary any longer.\nIndeed, if we look at net debt, we can see just how much Tesla’s balance sheet has improved, which again supports not having to dilute shareholders to stay afloat.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/49fa413fc33c85d7269e987b2c11c888\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"169\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: TIKR.com\nNet debt has turned into a net cash position of late, with Tesla having nearly $5 billion in cash and equivalents more than debt. Tesla’s financing situation has improved enormously, and that’s good for those of us that are bullish.\nIs it cheap?\nNot really. But then again revolutionary companies rarely are. The good news is that the price-to-sales ratio has halved since the peak earlier this year, but at 11x forward revenue, I cannot in good conscience call it cheap.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ca2d9f38636872d9d508e096e9ac8af8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"189\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: TIKR.com\nHowever, it is a lot cheaper than it was, and withrevenueslated to rise by more than half this year, and thendoubleagain by 2024, you don’t need the multiple to rise for a bullish outlook.\nI’ll reiterate that there are risks to Tesla. The daily chart is leaning slightly bearish with that descending triangle, but we’re heading into the pre-earnings run-up that Teslausuallyshines during. The weekly chart is showing signs of digestion rather than rolling over. There are competitive risks that aren’t new and will never go way, but the company is still building great EVs that are resonating with customers. Margins and FCF are booming comparatively speaking, and the stock is at roughly half the valuation it was a few months ago.\nAll in all, Tesla almost certainly has a rocky road in front of it, but I’m still bullish given the weight of the evidence.","source":"seekingalpha","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Tesla: A Lesson In Humility</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nTesla: A Lesson In Humility\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2021-06-24 11:43 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4436295-tesla-a-lesson-in-humility>seekingalpha</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\nSummary\n\nTesla shares have pulled well back in a months-long period of weakness.\nWith earnings coming up, there looks to be a showdown of bulls and bears on the near-term horizon.\nI see Tesla's ...\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4436295-tesla-a-lesson-in-humility\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"TSLA":"特斯拉"},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4436295-tesla-a-lesson-in-humility","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/5a36db9d73b4222bc376d24ccc48c8a4","article_id":"1176854050","content_text":"Summary\n\nTesla shares have pulled well back in a months-long period of weakness.\nWith earnings coming up, there looks to be a showdown of bulls and bears on the near-term horizon.\nI see Tesla's fundamentals - and valuation - as having improved massively in recent months, and I'm therefore still quite bullish.\n\nAdrianHancu/iStock Editorial via Getty Images\nSometimes in investing, our thesis, no matter how much we believe in it, doesn’t work. I’ve experienced that countless times personally, and I think pretty much everyone who tries their hand at growing capital through the financial markets does as well. The important thing is not to fall in love with a stock and let it destroy your portfolio, and in the case of EV mothershipTesla(TSLA), I certainly had my fair share of practice at letting go of a failed thesis recently.\nBack inearly April, I said it was time to buy Tesla based upon its fairly reliable history of running higher into earnings announcements. The stock was at $691 at the time and did move higher in the next couple of weeks, but as we can see from the below, the move didn’t stick. That caused me to rethink my position in the short-term with Tesla, and now that we are four weeks out from the next earnings report, we have a different situation on our hands.\nSource: StockCharts\nI’ve annotated several things on the daily chart because the situation is quite interesting for Tesla during this critical period leading up to the next earnings release. The first thing I’ll note is that the accumulation/distribution line remains very strong, having never wavered from its prior levels achieved during the massive rally that took place mostly in 2020. That’s a good sign because the bulls and bears remain roughly equally matched despite a share price that has given the bulls every reason to move on.\nMomentum is more of a mixed picture because the PPO and 14-day RSI are both showing some signs of positive divergence, but also signs that bullish momentum is nowhere near high enough to push the stock into another rally phase. On the divergence side, momentum is gradually moving higher while the share price bounces around, indicating that the worst of the selling is likely done, but that we’re in a digestion period. The 14-day RSI hasn’t yet crested the centerline in earnest, which again means that bullish momentum is fairly weak.\nOverall, I’d say momentum is showing what you might expect at this stage, which is that the selling pressure has abated, but we’re not in rally mode. Yet.\nFinally, the elephant in the room is the descending triangle I noted above, and I’ve added some extra bars at the end of the chart to show what the resolution of the triangle might look like. We can see at the current slope of the line that the triangle will likely resolve near the end of July, which just so happens to coincide with the earnings release. This is a bearish pattern so I don’t want to make everything seem like sunshine and lollipops, but the rest of the chart is mixed, so we’ll have to wait and see.\nThe earnings report, in my view, is going to be the catalyst one way or the other for the breakout from the triangle. Which direction it will go is anyone’s guess, but I’d be ready for a wild reaction to the earnings release in July.\nIf we look at a weekly chart, I see a much rosier picture.\nSource: StockCharts\nWe can see that the stock ran up massively in 2020 and took with it the accumulation/distribution line, as well as the momentum indicators, as you’d expect. But since the selling began, we see signs that the stock has simply worked off its overbought conditions, which looks bullish to me.\nThe 50-week moving average has served as support during this consolidation phase, and it currently stands at $575, so I’d watch that level if we see more selling. On the plus side, the accumulation/distribution line looks beautiful and again, is supportive of this selling being a digestion period rather than the end of the bull market for Tesla.\nMomentum would seem to support that as well, as the PPO and 14-week RSI are back at centerline support. What happens after this is critical, obviously, but the weekly chart doesn’t show Tesla as breaking down on a longer-term basis. The negative divergences we saw since 2020 began have given way to momentum resetting, which often happens before a new bull phase begins. With the earnings report looming in July, and the daily and weekly charts showing different pictures (at least to my eye), it’s going to be an interesting next four weeks for sure.\nFundamentals still bullish\nI’d sum up the chart as having a short-term set of challenges for the bulls, but longer-term, I still see Tesla going higher. On a fundamental basis, I think the conclusion is decidedly more bullish. Let’s start with revenue revisions, which have been nothing short of terrific.\nSource:Seeking Alpha\nAll years are showing uptrends in revenue revisions, and in particular, the out years. Let us not forget that these positive revisions are occurring during a time when countless startups and internal combustion engine OGs like GM (GM), Ford (F) and Volkswagen (OTCPK:VWAGY) are investing tens of billions of dollars to take market share in EVs. None of this is new and it isn’t like the analyst community is surprised by these investments; Tesla is simply on a tremendous upward trajectory when it comes to growing revenue.\nCanaccordpointed out last week that the Model S Plaid Plus delay was likely due to the 4680 cell design not being ready for prime time. That very well could be the case, and it wouldn’t be the first time Tesla disappointed with a time frame it gave investors. Remember therobo-taxi claim?\nAt any rate, the company’s lineup continues to resonate with customers and now that capacity constraints should lessen greatly over the coming years – new factories in a few parts of the world will help – the path of least resistance for Tesla is no doubt higher. This will only get better as Tesla can decrease the per-unit cost of things like the batteries so it can better compete with mainstream automakers on price, and become a mainstream automaker rather than a niche manufacturer for the well-heeled.\nAnother thing scale is affording Tesla is monumental progress with profit margins. Below we have trailing-twelve-months gross margins, SG&A costs, and EBIT margin as a percentage of revenue.\nSource: TIKR.com\nAll three of these lines are moving in the right direction. Gross margins have been rising thanks to higher sales and production volumes, a trend that should continue so long as sales remain robust. In addition, Tesla is spending much less on an SG&A basis than it used to, which again, is the product of higher sales volume. SG&A used to be in the mid-20% range of revenue, which is unsustainable. Today, it’s only 10%, which means operating margins have gone quite positive, and with room to run in the future.\nMargins have always been an easy thing for the bears to point to, but that is simply no longer the case, and if you have a long holding period, the margin situation is going to work out in the bulls’ favor.\nSource:Seeking Alpha\nThis is all pointing to ever-higher EPS estimates, as we can see above. Analysts continue to try and keep up with Tesla’s upward trajectory, and so long as sales volumes and margins continue their march higher, so will these lines. Again, this is a feather in the cap of the bulls.\nOther considerations\nTesla is not for the faint of heart, because it is volatile and we are at a point in the history of the automobile that an EV gold rush of sorts is occurring. Everyone is investing to win once the internal combustion engine is gone, but Tesla has a massive head start on the competition.\nEven so, there are risks to consider. First, Tesla could lose its technology lead over time as legacy manufacturers throw tens of billions of dollars at R&D on battery technology. Tesla is far and away the superior battery maker today, but that does not guarantee it stays that way. To be clear, I don’t see that as a viable outcome in the near-term, but ten years from now? Twenty? It's a risk.\nAnother risk is that Tesla uses its stock as a piggy bank, issuing shares to fund R&D, factory construction, and the like.\nSource: TIKR.com\nThe share count has nearly doubled in the past decade, which is pretty ugly from a shareholders’ perspective, as we usually only see this kind of dilution with REITs or BDCs that issue equity capital as a normal course of business. Manufacturing stocks don’t generally do anything like this, but Tesla has made it work. Still, you have to imagine it is possible that over a decade holding period, you’ll be diluted out of half of your ownership in the company. This also creates an uphill battle for EPS as earnings are spread over more and more shares, so I want to be clear this is an unequivocal negative for shareholders. However, let me now point you to what could possibly be the saving grace for this perma-dilution; free cash flow.\nSource: TIKR.com\nTesla’s trailing-twelve-months FCF has improved immensely in recent years, as the company is producing massive amounts of operating cash flow that it never did before, which is owed once again to sales volume and margin growth. Tesla has surpassed the point where it needs to constantly issue capital just to survive because it is creating its own through its operations. This is massively important for the bull case because it means the dilution we’ve seen in recent yearsshouldn’tbe necessary any longer.\nIndeed, if we look at net debt, we can see just how much Tesla’s balance sheet has improved, which again supports not having to dilute shareholders to stay afloat.\nSource: TIKR.com\nNet debt has turned into a net cash position of late, with Tesla having nearly $5 billion in cash and equivalents more than debt. Tesla’s financing situation has improved enormously, and that’s good for those of us that are bullish.\nIs it cheap?\nNot really. But then again revolutionary companies rarely are. The good news is that the price-to-sales ratio has halved since the peak earlier this year, but at 11x forward revenue, I cannot in good conscience call it cheap.\nSource: TIKR.com\nHowever, it is a lot cheaper than it was, and withrevenueslated to rise by more than half this year, and thendoubleagain by 2024, you don’t need the multiple to rise for a bullish outlook.\nI’ll reiterate that there are risks to Tesla. The daily chart is leaning slightly bearish with that descending triangle, but we’re heading into the pre-earnings run-up that Teslausuallyshines during. The weekly chart is showing signs of digestion rather than rolling over. There are competitive risks that aren’t new and will never go way, but the company is still building great EVs that are resonating with customers. Margins and FCF are booming comparatively speaking, and the stock is at roughly half the valuation it was a few months ago.\nAll in all, Tesla almost certainly has a rocky road in front of it, but I’m still bullish given the weight of the evidence.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":1098,"commentLimit":10,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"symbols":["TSLA","MKFG","AONE.U"],"verified":2,"subType":0,"readableState":1,"langContent":"EN","currentLanguage":"EN","warmUpFlag":false,"orderFlag":false,"shareable":true,"causeOfNotShareable":"","featuresForAnalytics":[],"commentAndTweetFlag":false,"andRepostAutoSelectedFlag":false,"upFlag":false,"length":513,"xxTargetLangEnum":"ORIG"},"commentList":[],"hasMoreComment":false,"orderType":2}