Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Elon Musk tweeted early Friday morning that he expects the company to be profitable and have cash flow in the third and fourth quarter this year. Tesla shares rose by 3.2 percent at the opening bell.
“The Economist used to be boring, but smart with a wicked dry wit. Now it’s just boring (sigh). Tesla will be profitable & cash flow+ in Q3 & Q4, so obv no need to raise money.” tweeted Musk.
His response was to a tweeted article by The Economist quoting Jefferies analysts saying that the Tesla would have to raise $2.5 billion to $3 billion this year to maintain the company’s cash flow.
Jefferies analysts have previously sent out notes to clients regarding a bearish position for Tesla. Philippe Houchois wrote in a note back in September to clients saying to avoid any electric car related stock for the next few years. His stance stemmed from that electric car manufacturers will face losses and report weak financial results, which heavily affected Tesla.
Musk tweeted back on April Fool’s day that Tesla has gone completely bankrupt as a joke, but did not seem to shock many investors and analysts as the company was already on track to exhausts its cash on hand. The joke led John Thompson of Vilas Capital to forecast that Tesla is going to be bankrupt within the next four months if it did not turnaround its operations.
Wall Street analysts are expecting Tesla to burn through $994 million in the second half of the year, while reporting adjusted net losses of $192 million and $35 million in the third and fourth quarter, respectively, according to Bloomberg.
One significant driver for Tesla’s loss was its Model 3 production operations. The company has faced many setbacks with producing and delivering the vehicles, but also paired with high expenses, Tesla’s finances took a hit.
Tesla’s said in fourth quarter earnings call that in 2018 it expects itself to begin generating positive quarterly operating income and that this year’s revenue growth will significantly exceed last year’s. Tesla said this year will be driven by both the Model 3 and energy storage products.
In Tesla’s first quarter vehicle production and delivery report, the manufacturer said that due to the progress done thus far, it expects that Model 3 production rate will climb rapidly through the second quarter. Tesla is aiming a target production rate of 5,000 Model 3 units per week in the next three months.
“As a result, Tesla does not require an equity or debt raise this year, apart from standard credit lines.” said Tesla in the statement.
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