‘Little baby’ Elon Musk had meltdown on Tesla earnings call, analyst claims

2023-10-25 21:57

Elon Musk has been accused of acting like “a little baby” and being “almost in tears” during an earnings call in which the billionaire struck a pessimistic tone about the economy. The Tesla CEO’s behaviour on the third-quarter earnings call was slammed as “terrible” by financial analyst Kevin Paffrath and the electric automaker’s stock price dropped 15 per cent in the two days following it. “For a leader to cry about the economy rather than funnelling that and coming up with a plan is pathetic,” Mr Paffrath, who owns Tesla stock, told Yahoo Finance. And he added: “We need to know the light is at the end of the tunnel rather than hearing a complaining CEO who’s not actually providing that path.” Tesla reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter results, with both earnings per share and revenue of $23.35bn falling short of analysts’ estimates, according to Yahoo Finance. But despite the issues as of Friday, the company’s share price was up 96 per cent year-to-date. Mr Paffrath, a YouTuber with 1.9 million followers, was not the only analyst to criticise Mr Musk’s performance. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives described the call as a “mini disaster” during which a “cautious” Mr Musk downplayed expectations for the Cybertruck and focused on high interest rates. “We dug our own grave with Cybertruck” Mr Musk said on the call, calling it a “great product” but also said he wanted to “temper expectations” for the long-awaited pickup truck. “Demand is off the charts. We have over 1 million people who have reserved the car, so it’s not a demand issue,” he said. “But we have to make it, and we need to make it a price that people can afford, insanely difficult things.” The Independent has reached out to Tesla for comment.

‘Little baby’ Elon Musk had meltdown on Tesla earnings call, analyst claims

Elon Musk has been accused of acting like “a little baby” and being “almost in tears” during an earnings call in which the billionaire struck a pessimistic tone about the economy.

The Tesla CEO’s behaviour on the third-quarter earnings call was slammed as “terrible” by financial analyst Kevin Paffrath and the electric automaker’s stock price dropped 15 per cent in the two days following it.

“For a leader to cry about the economy rather than funnelling that and coming up with a plan is pathetic,” Mr Paffrath, who owns Tesla stock, told Yahoo Finance.

And he added: “We need to know the light is at the end of the tunnel rather than hearing a complaining CEO who’s not actually providing that path.”

Tesla reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter results, with both earnings per share and revenue of $23.35bn falling short of analysts’ estimates, according to Yahoo Finance.

But despite the issues as of Friday, the company’s share price was up 96 per cent year-to-date.

Mr Paffrath, a YouTuber with 1.9 million followers, was not the only analyst to criticise Mr Musk’s performance.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives described the call as a “mini disaster” during which a “cautious” Mr Musk downplayed expectations for the Cybertruck and focused on high interest rates.

“We dug our own grave with Cybertruck” Mr Musk said on the call, calling it a “great product” but also said he wanted to “temper expectations” for the long-awaited pickup truck.

“Demand is off the charts. We have over 1 million people who have reserved the car, so it’s not a demand issue,” he said.

“But we have to make it, and we need to make it a price that people can afford, insanely difficult things.”

The Independent has reached out to Tesla for comment.