Tesla has “otherworldliness” about it, according to CNBC host Jim Cramer, who realized this after hearing Tesla’s conference call on Wednesday. Cramer feels that he has seen this property only in Amazon before.
“[Elon] Musk, like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has grand ambitions and if you want to be in on those ambitions you have to buckle up and get ready for a turbulent, autonomous driverless ride,” Cramer says.
How Musk and Bezos are different
CNBC’s Mad Money host thinks there is only one difference between Bezos and Musk. During their quarterly reports, Bezos seems to hardly care and never joins the earnings calls. Musk, on the other hand, makes an effort to answer everything.
Musk is one CEO on the planet who reported negative free cash flow, a declining gross margin, $16 billion in debt and the sudden exit of the CFO, and still Tesla’s stock surged, notes CNBC. However, the shares eventually closed down 6% on Thursday.
During the call, Musk even stated that the company was “very close to the edge” financially, and it makes sense to raise capital in order to bring down the risk. Cramer stated that the stock would have surged further “if it weren’t for these comments. Musk is prepping you for a secondary though, and it sounds like the Street will be very ready after that last home run off an offering.”
Cramer agrees with the concept that Musk is OK with running the company on negative cash flow but doesn’t want to miss out on sales.
Tesla shares shed gains
On Thursday, Tesla shares tumbled, giving away the returns made after the company’s earnings report as analysts gave mixed reviews on the most recently completed quarter. Analysts at JPMorgan warned that the free cash burn will be high, as the company has given a capex guidance of $2 billion to $2.5 billion just for the first half, which is well above the $2.3 billion that they were expecting for the entire year.
This further suggests that the company might raise capital in the near term, as conceded by Musk during the earning call. In a research note, analyst Ryan Brinkman stated that Tesla’s fourth quarter results were a mixed bag. Automotive revenue was stronger, but the gross margin came in lower driven by temporal factors which are likely to reverse in 2017, the analyst said.
On Thursday, Tesla shares closed down 6.41% at $255.99. Year to date, the stock is up almost 20%, while in the last year, it is up almost 54%.
