Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) gets ‘Outperform’ rating, $355 price target ahead of Q2 earnings call
Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) could be poised for an even bigger recovery, according to one of the electric car maker’s biggest bulls. In a recent note, Ben Kallo of Baird, one of Tesla’s most ardent supporters in Wall Street, reiterated his “Outperform” rating on TSLA stock, as well as his optimistic $355 per share price target.
In a recent note titled Q2: The Next Step in Restoring Bull Thesis, Kallo stated that he likes the Tesla share setup for the balance of the year. The Baird analyst further noted that Tesla’s further execution, starting with its second-quarter earnings report, will “help restore credibility and create a challenging short environment.”
Kallo pointed out that expectations for Tesla stock have become “overly negative” as of late, despite bear arguments shifting to margins following the company’s release of its record-breaking second-quarter production and delivery numbers. Despite these pervading sentiments, the Baird analyst nevertheless believes that the company’s margin results could exceed estimates, which would likely be viewed favorably by investors.
Tesla’s second-quarter results will likely determine the company’s momentum in the second half of the year. Tesla exceeded expectations in Q2 2019, producing a total of 87,048 vehicles while delivering approximately 95,200 in both the United States and other territories. These figures were notably higher than Wall Street’s estimates. Analysts polled by FactSet, for one, expected Tesla to report a total of 91,000 vehicle deliveries for Q2 2019 in the days leading up to the report’s release.
Tesla’s momentum could be highlighted by the shifting narrative surrounding the company. Just recently, Morgan Stanley ended up adjusting its estimates for Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 operations following a visit to China. After communicating with suppliers, the firm’s analysts admitted that Gigafactory 3, which is currently being built at a rapid rate in Shanghai, could be operational as early as November this year.
What is rather ironic with Morgan Stanley’s findings was the firm’s estimates for Gigafactory 3’s output. In a note, analyst Adam Jonas, who gave Tesla a “worst-case” price target of $10 in the second quarter, stated that the electric car production facility would likely produce 35,000-40,000 Model 3 per year in 2020, and ramp to 60,000 Model 3 per year in 2021. That’s a run-rate of 673-769 Model 3 per week in 2020 and 1,150 Model 3 per week in 2021. Considering Gigafactory 3’s scale, Morgan Stanley’s estimates seem curiously low.
Tesla’s second-quarter earnings report is set to be released after market close on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. It should be noted that the Q2 earnings call has been moved one hour to 3:30 p.m. PT (6:30 p.m. ET).
As of writing, Tesla stock is trading -0.42% at $254.80.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.
Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”
Twork said:
$LCID The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is…
— Nick Twork (@ntwork) July 14, 2026
Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.
Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.
Tesla received a price target upgrade just on the heels of what was a crazy successful quarter for its automotive business, as the company reported a delivery beat of over 15 percent for Q2.
Jefferies analysts are upping Tesla’s price target (NASDAQ: TSLA) to $400 from $375, while maintaining their “Hold” rating on shares, and the strong automotive deliveries from Q2 is a big reason. However, there are some other catalysts that Jefferies believes position Tesla for a strong position in the second half of the year.
Strong Deliveries
Tesla reported 480,000 deliveries for Q2, while Wall Street was between 395,000 and 405,000, as an overall consensus. It was an incredibly strong quarter from a delivery perspective, and Tesla sold well more than it produced during the three months.
Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent
While vehicle deliveries are not necessarily looked at in the light that they used to be, Tesla still maintains a lot of advantages for keeping deliveries strong. With the loss of the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year, Tesla still maintains a strong demand case for its EVs.
Robotaxi Performance
Tesla has been operating Robotaxi for over a year now, as it launched in Austin in mid-2025. That program has expanded to Houston and Dallas, the San Francisco Bay Area, and, most recently, Miami, Florida, the suite’s first appearance in the Sunshine State.
While the Robotaxi suite is still in its early phases and Tesla is working through things like fleet size and wait times, the company has been able to undercut the pricing of its competitors and has a great safety record.
Merger Speculation with Tesla and SpaceX
This is perhaps the biggest topic that many are speaking about with Tesla and SpaceX, and it is the one thing that seems to be on the mind of every investor.
Jefferies warns that growing talk of a Tesla-SpaceX merger could cause Tesla stock to trade more like a SpaceX proxy, which may disconnect it from underlying automotive fundamentals. SpaceX has a lot going for it, especially its compute deals that have been widely publicized as of late.
Profitability in New Projects Could Take Some Time
Tesla has a few long-term ventures in the pipeline, most notably the Optimus project and Robotaxi, which is launched but will take several years to expand to a meaningful level that resonates with everyday people.
This is something that investors need to be careful of. Tesla’s projects could take some time to round out, so Jefferies advises that these may carry initial losses, rather than immediate profit. Seasoned Tesla investors have echoed something like this for a long time; they knew going in it would not be an open-and-shut strategy. It was going to take time.
These new projects are no different.
Investor's Corner
NASA taps SpaceX to launch the telescope that could unlock new worlds
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope heads to orbit this August aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy with massive scientific ambitions.
SpaceX is set to play a central role in one of NASA’s most anticipated science missions in years. The company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, currently the most powerful operational launch vehicle in the world, will carry the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into orbit on August 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman is now in final preparations inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where on June 26 technicians used a crane to lift the observatory into a specialized stand for fueling and pre-launch testing.
Roman is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief of astronomy, whose career helped shape how the agency approaches space science.
NASA chose SpaceX Falcon Heavy because of Roman’s needs to reach a specific orbit far from Earth, well beyond where a standard Falcon 9 can deliver it. The Falcon Heavy, which first flew in 2018, has since become NASA’s go-to option for missions that need serious muscle without the cost and complexity of older launch systems.
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Roman will carry a field of view at least 100 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope, meaning it can photograph enormous swaths of the universe in a single shot rather than the narrow slices Hubble captures. That difference in scale is significant. While Hubble reshaped our understanding of the cosmos over 30 years, Roman is built to work faster and wider, surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies at once.
One of Roman’s most compelling capabilities is its potential to discover and photograph planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, and with enough precision to directly image planets that would otherwise be lost. That means scientists could study the atmosphere and surface characteristics of distant worlds rather than simply confirming they exist. Combined with Roman’s sweeping field of view, the telescope could detect thousands of exoplanets, and some of those planets may be in habitable zones where liquid water could exist. No telescope currently in operation has this level of power and capability. That capability alone could change what we know about other worlds, and perhaps finally answer the question: are we the only intelligent lifeforms in existence?
What Roman actually finds once it reaches orbit is an open question, and that is exactly what makes this launch worth watching.
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