Tesla is not considering raising more equity at this point

Aaron P. Bernstein | Reuters

Elon Musk, founder, CEO and lead designer at SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla, speaks at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, July 19, 2017.

Tesla is not considering raising more equity at this point, CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday

“We are not at this point considering an equity raise, we are thinking about debt,” Musk said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call. “But we are not thinking about an equity raise.”

Some analysts have expected Tesla to return to markets again at some point in the not-so-distant future, in order to raise more funds to accomplish a whole list of objectives: ramping up vehicle production, building massive planned factories, growing its solar and battery business, and building out service and charging infrastructure.

Tesla is still burning through huge amounts of cash. Negative free cash flow in the second quarter set a record of $1.16 billion, roughly double what the company spent in the previous quarter.

The company has returned to markets for equity several times since its IPO in 2010. Analysts have expressed concerns over the extent to which further offerings might dilute the cash-hungry car maker’s shares.

Investors however, seem undeterred. Tesla shares have risen more than 50 percent since the beginning of 2017. The stock was up almost 8 percent in after-hours trading, after the company delivered better than expected second-quarter earnings.

CFRA analyst Efraim Levy said in a note sent to CNBC that “while cash increased to $3 billion at quarter end, we think that is timing related and that second half spending will be an above consensus $2 billion, and could likely necessitate a capital raise in 2018.”