Tesla: Shares Sell Off on CFO Departure Announcement

An Aug. 7 regulatory filing by Tesla TSLA revealed that Zach Kirkhorn has stepped down as chief financial officer and will leave the company at the end of 2023; he will stay on until then to help with the transition. Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla’s chief accounting officer, has assumed the CFO role.

Given that Kirkhorn’s departure plan was not accompanied by any other news, we see no reason to change our outlook for Tesla. We maintain our $215 fair value estimate and narrow moat rating.

Tesla shares were down more than 2% at the time of writing as the market reacted negatively to the leadership change. We still view the shares as slightly overvalued, trading in 3-star territory but 15% above our fair value estimate. Accordingly, we recommend investors wait for a larger pullback in the stock to trade below our fair value estimate and offer a margin of safety before considering an entry point.

Kirkhorn had been with Tesla for 13 years and CFO for the last four years. Taneja has been chief accounting officer since 2019, having joined Tesla through the SolarCity acquisition in 2016. Given his executive experience at the company, we think he is more than capable of stepping into the CFO role.