Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is set to be enter its next stage of growth, that’s according to analysts at Wedbush who shrug off Monday’s disappointing delivery numbers that fell short of Wall Street expectations.
Elon Musk’s EV stock fell more than 2.5% in early deals but had rallied back to parity within the first hour of trading.
Telsa today told investors it produced some 430,488 vehicles in the quarter, delivering 435,059 units.
That marked deliveries around 30% better than this time last year, but, crucially, fell some way shy of the 461,000 expected by the market.
It comes amid more challenging market environment, especially in China, where demand has become tighter and competition from cheaper rivals is on the up.
Nevertheless, unabated by the downbeat data Wedbush sticks with a bullish ‘outperform’ rating and a $350 per share target that suggests some 41% upside to the current price.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives described the quarterly report of delivery data as “nothing to write home about”, noting that the decline represented longer than expected downtimes of factories in Shanghai and Austin which result in some 20,000 vehicles shifting into the fourth quarter from the third.
He pointed to the fact that Musk’s EV firm is still sticking to its full year target of 1.8 million deliveries, suggesting a strong fourth quarter is now needed to achieve this.
“We see better days ahead for 4Q and 2024,” Ives said in a note.
“Production in the quarter was 430.5k as the company upgrades its factories speaking to its overall expansion story with Tesla ramping up its production, scale, and new model releases over the next year.
“With price cuts mostly in the rear view mirror providing stability in prices going forward, we believe Tesla is now set to be entering the next stage of growth for the company globally with the Model 3 refresh front and center in China and Cybertruck production set to kick off beginning around Halloween.”
Tesla’s quarterly earnings report is due on 18 October, after the market close.