Tesla Stock Is Ripping Higher Wednesday: What's Going On?

Author: Adam Eckert | April 24, 2024 09:54am

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares are trading higher Wednesday on the heels of the company’s first-quarter financial results. Here’s a look at what’s going on.

What To Know: Tesla reported first-quarter revenue of $21.301 billion, which missed the consensus estimate of $22.151 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. The EV maker reported adjusted earnings of 45 cents per share, which missed estimates for earnings of 51 cents per share.

Free cash flow turned negative and revenues fell by 9% on a year-over-year basis, representing the worst revenue decline for Tesla since 2012, as production and deliveries slowed amid continued demand weakness.

Despite missing analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines, Tesla shares are ripping higher Wednesday, partially due to the company’s accelerated timeline for the launch of new models and talk about the development of a next-gen vehicle.

“We have updated our future vehicle line-up to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025,” the company said.

The gains in Tesla stock are also somewhat attributable to CEO Elon Musk’s focus on the conference call, per CNBC. Despite turning in a flurry of disappointing quarterly figures, Musk downplayed the quarter and reiterated his vision for the future around AI, Full Self-Driving and robotaxis.

"If somebody doesn't believe Tesla's going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company," Musk said on the call. “We will, and we are.”

The Tesla CEO also unveiled that Tesla’s robotaxi vehicle will be called “CyberCab” and that the company currently has approximately 35,000 Nvidia H100 chips installed and could have 85,000 by the end of the year for AI training purposes.

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Analyst Changes: Following the print, multiple analysts weighed in on the stock.

• Needham analyst Chris Pierce reiterated Tesla with a Hold.

• BofA Securities analyst John Murphy upgraded Tesla from Neutral to Buy and maintained a price target of $220.

• Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh maintained Tesla with a Neutral and lowered the price target from $195 to $180.

• Truist Securities analyst William Stein maintained Tesla with a Hold and lowered the price target from $176 to $162.

• Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives maintained Tesla with an Outperform and lowered the price target from $300 to $275.

• Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas maintained Tesla with a Buy and lowered the price target from $234 to $222.

• Roth MKM analyst Craig Irwin maintained Tesla with a Neutral and maintained a price target of $85.

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TSLA Price Action: Tesla shares were up 11.9% at $161.99 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: courtesy of Tesla.

Posted In: TSLA