Musk’s peculiar conduct causes angst on Wall Street
DETROIT — Elon Musk’s quirky behavior has long been chalked up to that of a misunderstood genius. But never have his actions caused so much angst on Wall Street.
Investors have for years endured millions of dollars in short-term losses in hopes of a long-term payoff. They might have even been able to stomach the $8.3 million that Tesla Inc. burns through each day. But it was a conference call Wednesday night that left many wondering how much more they can take.
Just after the electric car and solar panel company announced a record firstquarter loss, the Tesla CEO cut off two analysts who sought some basic answers: details about the company’s cash needs and orders for Tesla CEO Elon Musk baffled Wall Street analysts and investors Wednesday by dismissing tough questions in a conference call about the company’s earnings and performance. its all-important Model 3 mass-market electric car.
“These questions are so dry. They’re killing me,” Musk said as he dismissed an RBC Capital Markets analyst in favor of a blogger who served up queries more
to his liking.
Musk called the analyst questions boring and “not cool.”
Shares fell quickly in after-hours trading, and analysts began writing that Musk shouldn’t bite the hands that feed his company’s enormous cash needs because soon he may need more. Tesla’s stock closed down 5.6 percent in regular trading Thursday.
“While they may be dry in nature, we argue such questions are extremely important for a highly leveraged and cash-hungry company,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note to investors.
The conference call behavior was labeled bizarre by some investors. It also followed some recent wild tweets by Musk about building a cyborg dragon, how his eyebrows can grab things and an April 1 post in which he wrote, “Despite intense efforts to raise money, including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter Eggs, we are sad to report that Tesla has gone completely and totally bankrupt. So bankrupt, you can’t believe it.”