Elon Musk's Tesla Tantrum

conference call last week was extraordinary, by almost any measure. Why would he invalidate a question from Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Antonio Sacconaghi by calling it “bonehead” and “not cool,” then dismissing it with a cursory “Next?”

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 29: Elon Musk during his presenation at the Tesla Powerpack Launch Event at Hornsdale Wind Farm on September 29, 2017 in Adelaide, Australia. Tesla will build the world's largest lithium ion battery after coming to an agreement with the South Australian government. The Powerpack project will be capable of an output of 100 megawatts (MW) of power at a time and the huge battery will be able to store 129 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised to build the Powerpack in 100 days, or he will deliver it for free. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

The underlying reason for Musk’s behavior, I suggest, stems from recent short selling of Tesla’s stock, investors’ growing impatience with delays in the production schedule of the much anticipated Tesla 3, and Tesla’s large and growing need for capital.

None of these issues should come as a surprise. A year ago, and then again in July 2017, I wrote about Tesla’s stock being overvalued, Musk’s persistent tendency to provide overly rosy forecasts, and the overestimation by sell side analysts of Tesla’s free cash flows. I will not repeat what I wrote then, as readers are free to go back and see for themselves. Instead, I want to offer some behavioral insights about Tesla in light of last week’s events.

Consider the catalyst for Musk’s tantrum. It was a two part question by Sacconaghi. First, Sacconaghi asked about the guidance Tesla was providing about lower capital expenditures this year: he wanted to know what Tesla was reducing. Musk left this question for his CFO, Deepak Ahuja, to answer, and Ahuja made a general statement about simply being smarter about CapEx, in respect to both the Model 3 and the company’s infrastructure.

Second, Sacconaghi asked for a comment about Tesla’s capital requirements, what finance textbooks call external financing required. Musk, not Ahuja, fielded this question and simply blew up in the way I described above.

Without question, Sacconaghi’s questions had merit.  According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Tesla had spent approximately $3.9 billion in the previous 12 months, has large future expenditures on the horizon, and has cash holdings at the end of March that were about $2.7 billion. Finance textbooks speak about the challenge of managing growth when there is a spurt in sales in excess of how much cash the company can generate internally. Tesla is now facing a classic textbook problem to manage its growth.

The Wall Street Journal describes how Musk took to Twitter to defend his remarks, saying that the answer to Sacconaghi’s question about capital requirements could be found in a previous letter he had sent to shareholders. However, he also tweeted that the analysts whose questions he dismissed were from firms who were shorting Tesla’s stock.

Elon Musk’s behavior during Tesla’s analyst conference call last week was extraordinary, by almost any measure. Why would he invalidate a question from Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Antonio Sacconaghi by calling it “bonehead” and “not cool,” then dismissing it with a cursory “Next?”

Without question, Sacconaghi’s questions had merit. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Tesla had spent approximately $3.9 billion in the previous 12 months, has large future expenditures on the horizon, and has cash holdings at the end of March that were about $2.7 billion. Finance textbooks speak about the challenge of managing growth when there is a spurt in sales in excess of how much cash the company can generate internally. Tesla is now facing a classic textbook problem to manage its growth.

The Wall Street Journal describes how Musk took to Twitter to defend his remarks, saying that the answer to Sacconaghi’s question about capital requirements could be found in a previous letter he had sent to shareholders. However, he also tweeted that the analysts whose questions he dismissed were from firms who were shorting Tesla’s stock.

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