Tesla
’s
delivery announcement sent the shares skyrocketing and unleashed a lot of opinions on Wall Street about the result.
Investors want to know where shares will go next now that they have nearly recovered from all of their 2024 losses.
Tuesday, Tesla said it shipped some 444,000 cars to customers in the second quarter, better than the 438,000 vehicles the company described as the consensus forecast, but down about 5% year over year. Many of the lower estimates were in the range of 415,000 vehicles, so the results were a relief.
Tesla stock jumped 10% on Tuesday. Shares traded as high as $248.35 on Wednesday, putting them just 13 cents below where they closed out 2023, an amazing comeback for a stock that was below $140 a share on April 22.
Tesla stock closed up 6.5% at $246.39 on Wednesday while the
and
rose 0.5% and fell 0.1%, respectively.
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Tesla stock has gained for seven consecutive trading days. The move has added almost $30 billion to CEO Elon Musk’s wealth, propelling him into the leading spot among the world’s richest people. Jeff Bezos had held the top position.
Favorable commentary on Wall Street is helping the shares. Most of the opinions about Telsa’s delivery results have been positive.
“With the majority of price cuts in the rearview mirror and demand stabilization globally for EVs, especially in China, we believe Tesla’s march towards 2 million units annual trajectory should be reached over the coming quarters,” wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
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He rates shares Buy and took his price target to $300 from $275 a share. CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson also rates shares Buy. He raised his price target to $250 a share from $230.
The delivery number “greatly eases concerns regarding softening EV demand,” he wrote in a Tuesday report.
Not all the opinions were as positive. “A 5% delivery decline never looked so good,” wrote Guggenheim analyst Ronald Jewsikow. He believes most of the 10% jump was due to record energy-storage deployments, not car sales.
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Tesla sells battery backup storage to residential customers and utilities. It deployed 9.4 gigawatt hours of storage in the second quarter—a record. The prior high was 4.1 gigawatt hours. A huge jump like that could lead to higher sales and earnings estimates, says Jewsikow.
He rates Tesla stock Sell and has a $134 price target for shares. Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan rates shares Sell and has a target of $120.
Langan was projecting 385,000 deliveries for the second quarter, so Tesla beat his estimate. Yet he still doesn’t see Tesla reaching 1.8 million sales in 2024—the current consensus call.
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More than 40 analysts cover Tesla stock, according to FactSet. Most will have a report about the delivery number, but the bottom line is that it was a win for Tesla.
With shares at about $235 apiece in premarket trading, investors will be thinking about how high they can go, or if the rally will run out of steam. Tesla stock has risen for six consecutive days, gaining almost 27% over that span.
Tesla is “testing a long-term downtrend line,” says Fairlead Strategies founder and technical analyst Katie Stockton. “A couple of weekly closes solidly above $226 would be a bullish reversal.”
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She isn’t making a fundamental call on Tesla stock. Technical analysts look at charts to get a sense of where investors have bought and sold shares in the past and where any stock can go over the short and medium term.
The downtrend line can be drawn from the 2021 highs when shares were above $400 apiece. Holding above $226 would be a positive sign, says CappThesis founder Frank Cappelleri.
Some price stability following the deliveries would be a good sign for bullish investors. Lots of things are coming up, however, that could move Tesla stock in either direction.
Earnings will be later this month. Wall Street is looking for earnings per share of 60 cents. The surprisingly strong deliveries result and the energy-storage number will make hitting, or beating, that number easier.
Then there is the Aug. 8 robotaxi event. “How Tesla will charge for the service, vehicle uptime, costs associated with paying drivers for using their vehicles in the [robotaxi] fleet [are unknown],” wrote Baird analyst Ben Kallo on Tuesday. “We expect Telsa will defer speaking on these and other details until the unveiling event.”
He rates Tesla shares Buy and has a $280 price target.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
