Speaking to Benzinga, TheStreet.com Technology Editor Chris Ciaccia said that he was looking for Tesla Motors Inc TSLA to provide updated guidance on several items in its Q4 report.
“China is probably the big issue on investors minds” because the market as been “exceptionally weak” and the company only sold sold “about 100 cars,” according to Ciaccia. CEO Elon Musk may fire executives over the poor sales.
Ciaccia commented that the company had been confident about it selling 50,000 vehicles overall in 2015 and that any update on that number will be important for the stock. Another area that investors will be looking at is an update on the X model.
Investors will also want to pay attention for guidance on Tesla’s upcoming mass-market Model 3. The model needs to be released by 2017 or “they risk losing that market demographic to GM, Nissan and any of the other companies that are potentially entering the $35,000 to $40,000” segment.
Commenting on oil prices and Tesla sales, Ciaccia said, “I don’t think oil prices affect sales because Tesla’s key demographic is not someone who is really going to pay attention to oil prices...they’re not targeting middle-class America.”
Discussing currency concerns due to the strength of the U.S. Dollar, Ciaccia felt that weakness may be seen in overseas revenue but noted that the company’s financial team “are pretty smart guys” and they may need to start a hedging program at some point “to mitigate [the] currency volatility.”
Ciaccia cautioned investors on the issue of Elon Musk “starting to spread himself too thin” due to his interests in Space X.
Ciaccia mentioned that Musk has talked about stepping down as CEO but there is no succession plan and no one is involved who is as charismatic as Musk and who can “lead and sell the company’s story on Wall Street and to suppliers and customers.”
Heading into its earnings report on Wednesday, Tesla Motors Inc traded at $209.90, down 2.95 percent.
Kevin Riley and Brianna Valleskey contributed to this report.
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