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Just hours before it was due to report first-quarter financials, Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) confirmed Wednesday that two of its key executives were leaving, sending its stock tumbling. Around midday, Bloomberg broke the news that Greg Reichow , Tesla’s vice president of production, and manufacturing chief Josh Ensign will exit the electric automaker, bringing the number of vice presidents who’ve left so far this year to five. Reichow, who joined in 2011, was a particularly significant player at Tesla, having led a team responsible for “building an all-new manufacturing organization from the ground up and for making Model S and Model X a reality,” according to Chief Executive Elon Musk. Reichow’s departure was described as a leave of absence, but its length wasn’t specified. Bloomberg also cited an anonymous source saying that glitches in the launch of the Model X SUV were tied to the executives’ departures, though Tesla denied this. Tesla stock fell 4.2% to 222.56 on the stock market today . The stock has been sliding for the last week, as sentiment ahead of the quarterly report has been mixed to negative. On Friday, Robert W. Baird analyst Ben Kallo cut his first-quarter estimates based on the troubled launch of the Model X, a few days after UBS analyst Colin Langan wrote that the Model 3 sedan, currently taking pre-orders ahead of its release, could not be profitable with its $35,000 price tag. On the other hand, on Tuesday Stifel analyst James Albertine affirmed his buy rating, and defended the Model X. “Despite Model X launch hiccups, including a 2,700-unit recall related to third-row seats that could fold forward during a crash, we think management approached this as an opportunity to showcase its world-class customer service and may have improved the brand,” Albertine wrote in his research note. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News