Tesla’s Stock Price Problem Refuses To Go Away

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 21, 10:33AM EDT

Quick Read

Where Are The Robots?
Car Sales Struggle
Focus Is On SpaceX
The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and Ford wasn't one of them. Get them here FREE.

Tesla’s Stock Price Problem Refuses To Go Away — © 2022 Getty Images / Getty Images News via Getty Images

In the shadow of the massive SpaceX IPO, the stock of Elon Musk’s other big company is struggling. SpaceX could debut with a $2 trillion market cap as it raises $80 billion. It will need the money. The SpaceX loss in the first quarter was $4.3 billion against $4.69 billion in revenue. The loss was because of Musk’s AI ambitions. The AI division lost $2.5 billion. It hardly matters; Musk controls 85% of the SpaceX voting rights and can do as he pleases.

Musk has also said the future of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) lies in AI and AI-related products, including its Robotaxi and Optimus robots (Tesla Bot). Musk says there will be 10 billion humanoid robots worldwide by 2040. These will be priced at $20,000 to $25,000. If it works, Tesla will have a revenue bonanza.

But, at least some portion of Wall St. is concentrated on Tesla’s current business, which is mostly EVs. The drop in Tesla’s market share in many parts of the world and the flattening of sales in key markets like the US have made EVs much less attractive as a source of income. Tesla was the clear market leader in China, the US, and Europe for a few years in a row. Last year, Tesla’s EV sales in the EU dropped by double digits. In the US, most measured sales were flat.

In China, the world’s largest EV market by far, Tesla competes with dozens of companies. Some have received government financial assistance. Some have vehicles that are much less expensive than Tesla’s. Many auto experts say that the overall features of some EVs are better than Tesla’s.

Tesla’s stock is down 7% this year. The S&P 500 is up 8%. And America’s worst-run car company, Ford (NYSE: F), has a flat stock price.

Last year, Tesla’s global unit sales were basically flat at just over 1.6 million.

Based on first-quarter revenue, Tesla’s auto division staged some recovery as its revenue was up 16% year over year to $16.2 billion.

Most people who follow Tesla say a jump in the stock will require two things. The first is a rapid growth in its core car business. The second is that there is greater hope that the Robotaxi and Optimus products show signs of being viable and can be sold at scale.

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.