Tesla (TSLA) stock is staying strong in trading Thursday after the company delivered earnings that largely surprised Wall Street and Elon Musk delivered a new round of optimistic forecasts.
The automaker reported improved operating profit margins, automotive gross profit margins excluding the benefits of regulatory credits, and better earnings per share than analysts had expected for the July to September quarter. It also reported better than expected net income and its lowest cost per goods sold ever, at about $35,100 per vehicle.
It’s the first time in seven quarters — that’s almost two years — that Tesla has grown its earnings.
Cannacord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas reiterated a buy rating and raised his price target to $278 per share from $254 per share. A number of analysts across firms like KGI Securities and Goldman Sachs (GS) likewise raised their price targets. J.P. Morgan (JPM) analysts maintained an underweight rating and raised their price target to $135 per share from $130 per share.
“There is more wood to chop for Tesla and this recovery story still has some challenges ahead to convince the Street that 2025 will be a true inflection point year,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a note Thursday, adding that the Tesla has taken its “first major step” to recovery. Wedbush maintained its $300 per share price target and an outperform rating.
Tesla stock was down roughly 2% when the market closed on Wednesday. As of early Thursday morning, shares have gained more than 13%, returning the stock to about here it was before Tesla’s “underwhelming” robotaxi product demonstration left Wall Street with more questions than answers.
On Wednesday, Musk gave investors a lot to look forward to, assuming that his promises and “best guess” estimates ring true. He reiterated that the company aims to begin scaling production of its Cybercab robotaxis in 2026, with plans to eventual make between 2 million and 4 million units per year; that’s more units than Tesla sells electric vehicles.
“That will be in more than one factory, but I think it’s at least 2 million units a year, maybe 4 million ultimately,” Musk said, adding that he’s talking about his “best guesses.”
Musk also said Tesla expects to begin offering rideshare services next year in at least two states, California and Texas, where he also plans to get regulatory approval for “fully autonomous unsupervised” Full Self-Driving (FSD). Many valuations of Tesla’s current and future stock price account for a planned robotaxi network, which Musk has called a “combination of Airbnb (ABNB) and Uber (UBER).”
Tesla has been operating its own rideshare network for employees at its facilities in California’s Bay Area using current models and a driver at the wheel, executives said Wednesday. Palo Alto, California, is in talks to use Tesla’s newly-unveiled robotaxi in its rideshare program, but the company doesn’t plan to begin making those cars until 2026.
Tesla has, so far, sold more than 1.29 million electric vehicles in 2024, including 462,890 units delivered between July and September. That doesn’t give the company much wiggle room to reach or beat 1.8 million sales — its 2023 record — by the end of the year. But the automaker said it expects “slight growth” in deliveries this year, which would require fourth-quarter sales of more than 516,000 units.
Musk said his “best guess” is for deliveries to reach 20% to 30% growth next year, citing Tesla’s plans to begin selling more affordable models in early 2024.
