(Reuters) – Tesla ‘s quarterly report on Wednesday could give CEO Elon Musk a $ 7 billion options payment, while high stock owners of electric carmakers are keen to hear the company’ s target for 2021 delivery.
Tesla posts its December quarter results after a nearly 700% rise in its stock over the past 12 months that has made it the fifth most commercially valuable U.S. company, declining on Facebook.
Despite production being a fraction of those of Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen or General Motors, Tesla has become the world’s most valuable car maker, with a market capitalization of $ 843 billion, the compared to Toyota’s $ 236 billion.
Its shares are trading at more than 200 times the analysts ’average earnings forecast for next year, according to Refinitiv, supporting skeptics’ arguments that Tesla stock has grown too fast. high.
After Tesla delivered just a shy of 500,000 electric vehicles promised by Musk last year, investors are aiming for the Silicon Valley manufacturer’s 2021 delivery target, which is expected to be delivered on Wednesday.
“We expect almost 900,000 deliveries. I think that as the economy reopens, there will be a huge demand from people who want to spend some money, ”said King Lip, chief investment strategy at Baker Avenue Asset Management in San Francisco, which owns shares of Tesla.
Following Wednesday’s trade close, analysts on average expect Tesla to report a revised EBITDA of $ 2.3 billion, up 92% from a year ago. That would be enough to encourage the sale of a fifth of 12 shares of options given to Musk in its 2018 pay package to buy Tesla discounted shares.
(Graphic: Elon Musk paycheck expands 🙂
Musk, who is also a majority owner and CEO of rocket maker SpaceX, is not paid by Tesla. Its pay package calls for Tesla’s market capitalization and financial growth to boost a series of targets.
Each share will allow Musk to buy 8.4 million Tesla shares at $ 70 each, a discount of more than 90% off their current price. At Tuesday’s price of $ 889, the shares from four previous tranches and the normal share could generate a profit of nearly $ 35 billion, or nearly $ 7 billion per share.
Earlier this month, Tesla began delivering Shanghai-made Model Y sport convenience vehicles to customers in China, where it is benefiting from picking up consumer demand but competition is also growing.
Over the past three months, the shares of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers NIO have doubled as investors diversify their bet in the electric vehicle industry. Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers Xpeng and Li Auto have seen their stocks jump 170% and 69% in the same period.
Investors will also be looking for updates about plants that Tesla is building in Berlin and Texas, as well as the forecast for Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck construction product.
For the December quarter, analysts expect Tesla to report 40% revenue to $ 10.3 billion and net income of $ 752.5 million, with adjusted earnings per share of $ 1.01, a according to Refinitiv. In the previous quarter, Tesla’s profits came from selling corruption credits to other dealers, and it would have lost money if it hadn’t just sold cars.
Reporting by Noel Randewich; edited by Peter Henderson and Dan Grebler