Elon Musk attends a discussion session at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on June 19, 2024 in Cannes, France.
Mark Piasecki | Getty Images
The day after the sharpest rise since 2013, Tesla’s The stock closed at a one-year high on Friday as investors and analysts continued to praise the electric car company’s third-quarter results.
Tesla stock rose 3.4% to $269.23 on Friday, closing at its highest level since September 2023. With two days of gains, the stock erased this year’s losses and is now up 8.4% in 2024, still lagging the Nasdaq’s 23% rise.
Analysts at Piper Sandler raised their price targets after Wednesday’s earnings report. The company already rates the stock a buy and said it was raising its 12-month price forecast to $315 from $310 “to reflect increased delivery times and improved margins.”
Tesla stock soared 22% on Thursday, its second-best performance since the company’s IPO in 2010. This comes after Tesla reported sales of $25.18 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations of $25.37 billion, but up 8% from a year ago. . Tesla reported adjusted earnings per share of 72 cents, beating analysts’ average estimate of 58 cents.
Tesla’s margins were boosted by $739 million in proceeds from environmental regulatory financing, which JPMorgan Chase analysts said was a “potentially unsustainable driver” of earnings and cash flow. It was pointed out in the report that there is. Revenue of $326 million from FSD, the company’s fully autonomous driving monitoring system, also boosted results.
CEO Elon Musk said in an earnings call that his “best guess” is that next year’s auto growth rate will be 20 to 30 percent, due to lower vehicle costs and the “arrival of self-driving.” . Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected delivery growth to be about 15% in 2025.
But when it comes to autonomy, Musk has always met his own deadlines for bringing products to market. Bernstein analysts wrote in a post-earnings note that Musk “has a long history of being overly optimistic about FSD,” adding that the research found that “Tesla continues to lag significantly behind competitors” on robotaxis. “I’m taking it,” he added.
Musk also said on the conference call that Tesla plans to begin production of its recently announced CyberCab, a robotaxi with butterfly doors and no steering wheel or pedals, by the end of 2026. Tesla said it will next launch driverless ride-hailing services in California and Texas. Existing cars cannot currently be used safely unless a human driver is available to take the wheel and apply the brakes at any time.
According to the report, Musk’s paper wealth increased by about $30 billion over the two-day rally, bringing his total net worth to about $274 billion. forbes. This makes him more than $60 billion more than the second richest person in the world. oracle Founder Larry Ellison is a former Tesla board member and a good friend of Musk’s.
Still, Tesla stock is still 34% below its all-time high set in 2021. The company faced difficult conditions in the first quarter of 2024, with vehicle deliveries decreasing year-on-year and consumers flocking to EVs from many competitors.
Competitive risks remain.
In China, companies such as BYD and Geely, as well as new generation automakers such as Li Auto and Nio, are expanding sales. In the United States, traditional automakers Ford and General Motors have begun ramping up sales of electric vehicles, despite backing away from previous electrification efforts.
clock: Tesla’s price war is over
