Elon
Musk promises to take question from this YouTuber on Tesla earnings
call
Published: May 2, 2018 2:44 p.m. ET
‘I’m in shock
myself,’ Tesla investor says after ‘total moonshot’ lands him in queue
typically reserved for financial analysts
![](MarketWatch%2020180502%20Hyperchange%20x40.png)
Hyperchange via
YouTube
Gali Russell used his YouTube channel to build support for a
campaign to ask a question on the Tesla Inc. earnings conference
call.
|
A
self-described “financial nerd” with a YouTube channel and a passion
for Tesla Inc. waged an online campaign that succeeded in its quest
Monday evening: Chief Executive Elon Musk agreed to answer a question
from the investors during the Silicon Valley car maker’s post-earnings
conference call.
Members of the media and retail investors are not usually allowed
access to the call’s queue. Reporters have had questions answered in
at least one, apparently isolated, instance, and no retail investors
have gone through during the call.
That
would change on Wednesday if Musk follows through with his Twitter
reply to Gali Russell, a 25 year-old New York University grad striking
out on his own as an independent analyst and chief executive of his
YouTube venture after a brief stint at a startup.
Russell has 795 followers
on Twitter, up from about 600
when Musk replied to his request, and 8,797 subscribers on his YouTube
channel,
HyperChange, which is mostly
about Tesla.
TSLA
Russell told MarketWatch in an interview that he’s polling his
audience to choose the one question he assumes he’ll be allowed to
ask, and has put forth questions around Tesla’s profitability,
hyperautomation and other topics.
On
his own, he would ask Musk where he thinks the Model Y, a compact SUV
Tesla hopes to add to its lineup, and the Tesla Semi, the company’s
all-electric commercial heavy-duty truck, will be built, Russell said.
Russell had started a campaign of sorts to be allowed a question,
saying he’d represent retail investors, and said he convinced nearly
200 people to email Tesla’s investor relations department asking for
it. The next step was to tweet at Musk.
“I
just put it out there and it worked,” he said. “It was a total
moonshot. To be honest, I’m in shock myself.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to when asked if it plans to follow
through with Musk’s promise.
Russell, a Seattle native and New York City resident, said he hopes
his time in the spotlight will be the start of more opportunities for
retail investors and independent analysts to question companies’
decisions. Analysts associated with investment banks and financial
companies are perhaps too passionless, too distracted by their own
company’s politics or bosses to stay focused on the long-term
prospects for companies they cover, he said.
Tesla is scheduled to report first-quarter results on Wednesday after
the bell. A conference call with Wall Street analysts is to follow at
2:30 p.m. Pacific.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect Tesla to report an adjusted loss
of $3.54 a share on sales of $3.28 billion, which would compare with
an adjusted loss of $1.33 a share on sales of $2.69 billion a year
ago. Shares of Tesla have fallen nearly 9% in the past 12 months,
contrasting with a 10% advance for the S&P 500 index
SPX and 14% gains for the Dow
Jones Industrial Average.
DJIA
Analysts are likely to grill Musk about the Model 3 production rate,
promised at 5,000 sedans a week by the end of the second quarter, and
whether Tesla will turn to capital markets in the near term to shore
up its balance sheet.
Russell promises no softball question when his turn comes.
“I want to get the hard stuff answered,” he said.
![](MarketWatch%202018%20Assis%20profile%20x20.png) |
Claudia
Assis |
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch. |
Copyright ©2018 MarketWatch, Inc. |