Electric vehicle trailblazer Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) released its Q3 2024 earnings report on October 23. Leading up to the earnings call, sentiment had turned bearish — driven by skepticism after the underwhelming Robotaxi Day ‘We, Robot’ event.
While the future might still be uncertain, particularly with Musk’s history of overpromising and under delivering, at present, things are looking up for the automaker — the quarter was a success and led TSLA stock price to surge by 14.09%, at the time of publication.
Although the company did miss revenue estimates, earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.72 — far better than the consensus estimate of $0.60. Vehicle deliveries beat estimates, and sales volume rose by 6%.
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It should be noted, however, that the core business was sluggish — automotive revenue rose by just 1% compared to last year, while areas like regulatory credits, for instance, saw a 33% increase.
At press time, Tesla shares are trading at $247.92 — bringing year-to-date (YTD) returns up to 0.46%.
Analysts raise TSLA price targets — but outlook is mixed
At press time, five Wall Street firms have published revised price targets through their equity researchers — JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Canaccord Genuity, and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).
Of the four, only two — Canaccord and BoFA, rate the stock a ‘Buy’.
Canaccord equity researcher George Gianarikas was the most optimistic and raised his price target from $254 to $278, citing Tesla’s impressive performance in the Chinese market and strong energy storage segment margins. The $278 price target represents a 14.29% upside from current TSLA stock price.
Bank of America’s John Murphy was slightly less optimistic — changing his price target from $255 to $265. If met, this mark would equate to an 8.95% increase in Tesla share price.
Goldman Sachs reiterated a neutral rating, bolstering its price target from $230 to 250. Firm researcher Mark Delaney called the earnings report an incremental positive — however, the analysis was tempered by worries regarding whether or not Tesla could sustain margins and vehicle delivery growth.
On the whole, Goldman put out a very conservative estimate — a price target of $250 would only represent a 2.78% increase from Tesla stock prices at press time.
Finally, JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) provided the lone bearish outlook of the lot — maintaining an ‘Underweight’ rating while increasing the price estimate from $130 to $135. For this price target to be met, the business would have to suffer a catastrophic 44.5% drop from current prices.
