NEW YORK — Shares of Elon Musk's two flagship companies stayed firm this week as investors digested a pair of strong third-quarter reports, a trimmed Tesla spending plan and a fresh round of analyst upgrades for SpaceX.
Tesla — NASDAQ: TSLA — drew buyers after posting $28 billion in quarterly revenue and $2.62 in earnings per share, a beat that reassured a market watching margins closely. The company also lowered its 2026 capital-expenditure floor to "in excess of $20 billion" from "more than $25 billion," a move that lifted its free-cash-flow outlook even as it kept $45.4 billion of cash on the balance sheet. The details sit in Tesla's Q3 earnings report.
SpaceX Draws Upgrades
SpaceX — NASDAQ: SPCX — was the standout. Analysts rushed to raise price targets after a bullish earnings call that showcased booming Starlink growth and a first solidly profitable quarter for the AI "Super Intelligence" segment the company absorbed when it folded xAI into SpaceX. The post-earnings enthusiasm extended a run that has carried $SPCX toward multi-month highs, and it dovetails with the still-live question of a Tesla-SpaceX combination that both boards are now studying through special committees.
The Tape Right Now
As of this writing, $TSLA was changing hands around the mid-$460s, holding most of its post-earnings gain and sitting in the upper half of a 52-week range that runs from roughly $270 to the low $490s. $SPCX traded near $210, up double digits on the month and within striking distance of its post-IPO highs; the stock's 52-week band spans about $165 to $225. Volumes were heavy on both names as index funds rebalanced around the prints. Prices move fast around earnings, so treat these figures as a point-in-time snapshot.
