Elon Musk pulled off an incredible magic trick this week by distracting everyone from terrible Tesla results with a successful rocket launch, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Thursday.
"In the end, Musk is David Blaine. He is David Blaine. And Blaine is very good," Cramer told "Squawk Box," referring to the abilities of the popular magician and illusionist.
Musk's SpaceX and Tesla are separate companies, with only the electric-car maker trading as a public stock. But the fortunes and troubles of each collided on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"He launched a successful rocket the day before; fabulous timing versus this quarter [for Tesla]. The first question on the conference call was, 'Hey, first of all, let's say the rocket was great.' This is just a great misdirection play."
Musk on the Tesla conference call after announcing its biggest quarterly loss ever said, "I'm cautiously optimistic that we will actually be GAAP profitable with no asterisk." Using that accounting method, the company lost nearly $2 billion last year. Tesla also promised to iron out production problems for its new, cheaper Model 3 sedan and meet short-term and long-term delivery goals.
"This guy [Musk] is better than Blaine," Cramer said. "Blaine-per-share, this guy is an awesome Blaine."
Analyst Colin Rusch, who covers Tesla for Oppenheimer, said, "What I heard last night is they're hedging their production times. We're not totally buying that." Rusch also said he doesn't trust Musk's promises anymore. "We discount what he says pretty substantially."
Tesla was not immediately available to respond to CNBC's request for comment.