Updated November 21, 2019: We are updating our original blog on Target. First, we note that Ms. Cathy Smith, stepped-down officially on November 1, 2019 and her replacement was named at the same time. Specifically, her replacement is a Target insider. At a time we believe a new and fresh perspective about Target’s PPE is needed, Target went the other way and appointed Michael J. Fiddelke, 43, as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Fiddelke appears to have originally joined Target as a 29 year-old and has stayed loyal to Target since then.

Burisma is a private company and Reuters estimates that it only brings in $400 million a year in revenue. In our analysis, we would expect an independent director like Hunter Biden to make between $55,000—$83,000 a year at Burisma. If Hunter made $83,333 a month as reported by Reuters, then he made over 12 times what a typical independent director at a private company would make.

Tesla’s stock price is notoriously volatile. When a profit was recorded in the third quarter, the stock jumped from about $250 a share to over $310 a share. This volatility reflects the volatility of Musk himself, who has gotten himself into so much trouble with his twitter account that he has agreed to have a lawyer act as his twitter babysitter.

Tesla supporters have been reveling in the third quarter results that showed Tesla turning an operating profit for the first time this year. Tesla’s stocks have shot up dramatically based on the good news.

In Parts I, II, and III, we took a deeper look at their recent CFO change, their loss of four Directors, and the loss of the confidence of some of their biggest institutional investors. In each of these indicators there is a possible inference that insiders at the company know about something rotten in Tesla that is obscured from the ordinary shareholders. In this post we will take a deep dive into the SolarCity acquisition and look at the reliability of Musk and Tesla’s statements surrounding the acquisition.

In Parts I and II we looked at Tesla’s latest CFO change and the decision by four of its Directors to not stand for reelection. Today we will look some indicators that measure the confidence that institutional investors have in Tesla, and how decreasing confidence by some institutional investors has made it safer, in some sense, to buy Tesla’s stock.

In Part I of our series on Tesla, we discussed what historical data can tell us about the probability that class action suits, material weaknesses, or even restatements will occur when there is an alarming CFO change. In this post we will look at some historical data to provide context to the decision by four directors of Tesla to decline to stand for reelection.