According to a recent report from Barron’s, Tesla’s record-setting earnings for the first quarter of this year handily beat Wall Street’s estimates, leaving analysts “speechless” (via Yahoo Finance).
The electric vehicle (EV) maker on Wednesday announced $18.7 billion USD in total revenue for Q1 2022, up a staggering 81% year-over-year, with a net income of $3.3 billion and a 19.2% operating margin.
“I am already speechless,” New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu tweeted out shortly after Tesla released its quarterly financial results.
Ferragu was impressed with Tesla’s roughly 29.5% automotive gross profit margin for the first quarter. Tesla’s profit margin only grew by 0.5% compared to the previous quarter, but that increase was in the face of mounting inflationary pressure on raw materials for the automotive industry.
Tesla & SpaceX are seeing significant recent inflation pressure in raw materials & logistics
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022
Tesla took cost-cutting measures throughout the quarter and even increased the average selling price of its EVs to prevent margins from dipping.
During Q1 2022, Tesla produced 305,407 vehicles, up 69% year-over-year, and deliveries grew 68% to a record 310,048 cars.
Ferragu holds a ‘Buy’ rating on Tesla shares and has a $1,580 price target for the stock. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives is also bullish on Tesla, with a ‘Buy’ rating for shares and a price target of $1,400 per share. Ives said Q1 2022 results are “Cinderella-like,” and was impressed with the numbers Tesla produced against a “brutal supply chain backdrop.”
“We commend the execution,” wrote Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne in his research report. While he is impressed that Tesla still expects to grow delivery volumes by at least 50% in 2022 despite supply chain turmoil, he isn’t a bull. Cowen maintains a ‘Hold’ rating on shares with a price target of $790 a share.
We “are less enthusiastic about the stock at current valuation given likely peak gross margin,” he added.
J.P. Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman and Citigroup’s Itay Michaeli aren’t convinced, however. Both praised Tesla for a strong quarter but stuck to their ‘Sell’ ratings on shares. The two analysts did raise their price targets through — Brinkman from $330 per share to $395, and Michaeli from $313 to $375.
Tesla stock was up 5.6% in midday trading on Thursday, to $1,032.01 per share.
