Tesla (TSLA) Stock Higher, Close to Merger Deal with SolarCity
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Tesla Motors (TSLA) - Get Report are up 0.33% to $223 in pre-market trading Monday as the electric car maker and SolarCity (SCTY) are close to a merger agreement, according to sources cited by Reuters.
The two companies are in the final stages of finishing due diligence on each other and could agree on the terms of a deal in the coming days, the sources added. But it is possible that discussions could be unsuccessful.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a major shareholder in both companies.
Last month, Tesla made an all-stock offer for the solar panel maker worth $2.8 billion.
Separately, Tesla is hurrying to finish its $5 billion "Gigafactory" years ahead of schedule in time for the rollout of its cheaper Model 3 sedan, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Musk expects that the new plant may be capable of producing a total of 105 gigawatt hours of battery cells by 2020.
"We have to be ready with cell and pack production well ahead of vehicle production," JB Straubel, Tesla's chief technical officer and co-founder said, according to the Journal, "We're accelerating our construction plans and accelerating our planned ramp up of cell production."
Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Sell" rating with a score of D+ on the stock.
The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, generally high debt management risk, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.
Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: TSLA