Tesla Inc (TSLA)

This one's quite the anomaly. Today he heard someone justify the valuation when they looked 10 years into the future (if robotaxis and everything else plays out almost to perfection). He might be too old-school for this, but he can't pay 200x PE or more for this company.

Thinks there's bound to be some disappointment in this week's earnings announcement.

Big problems with the valuation and the leadership (not predictable enough). Musk has a brilliant mind, but doesn't mean he runs companies effectively on behalf of shareholders. Priced as a tech, not a car, company.

Can't tell their future, but don't underestimate Elon Musk. How big can their energy storage get? But this trades at a very high 200x PE. Can't recommend one way or the other. CSU is a safer bet.

Sales are falling and it is not making much money. No new car models in 5 years although it has some energy storage and services components. There is excitement over its Robo taxis and humanoids but there is a lot of competition all over the world in this. How do you justify a market cap of $1 trillion. If buying, he would consider it a precarious one.

Trades at 176x PE, not exactly bargain basement. Musk's antics in politics have turned non-Americans away. EV sales in general have stalled. He saw a BYD vehicle in France, and it's way more beautiful than a Tesla and 2/3 the price. Lots of competition. Musk's compensation demands are egregious.

For 2026, the big thing is going to be the Optimus robot. Company estimates it will sell 20-30k of these $20k robots. They're already being used in factories. Also things going on with Grok, the large language model; needs a partner, and he feels it will be AAPL.

EVs are important, but you have to look to the future with this one. May be dead money for the next quarter, but will absolutely bounce back with Optimus.

He looks at performance in 1-, 6- and 12-month time frames. The 1- and 6 months were negative, but over 12 months the stock is up 55%. Actually, he insists it was positive over the past month. (The host insists it is down the past month, but it depends on precisely which days and times of the day are noted for the calculations.)

Revenue and earnings have been falling, but you can sell the Oct. 17 $340 calls and collect $15 for 2.5 months.

Cult stock. Losing market share. People are paying up for what it's going to do with robotics in the future. He's not. 

Very volatile. The story is shifting a bit from rapid EV growth to managing its scale. Q2 saw delivery fall 5% YOY, but still beat reduced expectations. Price cuts help, but continue to pressure profitability. Limited near-term upside. Value is 2/10. Compressed margins, rising Chinese competition. Political drama as well.

No doubt the company has challenges. Earnings growth is -20% in a quarter and will happen again, where do you see that turn in growth? It's not enough for Elon Musk to say, I'm back. Yes, Tesla is developing robotaxis, but so is Waymo at Google in partnership with Uber.

The fundamental business, EVs, is in decline, so expectations are -13% and -22% revenues and earnings. But the market will give Tesla the benefit of the doubt in robotics. She bought it recently at $293 and is now at $333. This will be rangebound from $260-350. Now, sell calls. This won't change until there are new revenue streams to monetize. You can make money selling calls.