Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) reports second quarter results after the bell on Tuesday, with investors eying the EV-maker’s future vehicle roadmap, robotaxi rollout, and other initiatives such as AI and Tesla Energy.
Tesla stock is still essentially flat for the year despite a steep early-year sell-off as the enthusiasm behind a Tesla robotaxi, shareholder approval of Musk’s controversial pay package, and new growth in Tesla’s energy business sent Tesla stock on a steep rise — nearly 38% in the past month.
But a pushback of Tesla’s robotaxi reveal has given investors pause. Musk all but confirmed last week that Tesla would be delaying its robotaxi reveal, which was slated for Aug. 8.
“Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things,” Musk tweeted in reply to a post regarding changes and a delay to the robotaxi.
With a robotaxi date in limbo, investors expect Tesla and Musk to give an update on the car’s debut.
“Addressing the delay in Robotaxi Day and the new timing will be important to hear on the conference call as we believe a linchpin to Tesla reaching $1 trillion+ valuation and ultimately higher over the next year is contingent on the AI/FSD story materializing into a monetization path over the coming years,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note published on Monday.
As for the quarter itself, Tesla is expected to report Q2 revenue of $24.59 billion per Bloomberg consensus, higher than the $21.30 billion it reported in Q1, but a shade lower than the $24.93 Tesla reported a year ago. The street expects Tesla to post adjusted EPS of $0.60, on adjusted net income of $2.15 billion, and operating profit of $1.88 billion, per Bloomberg.
While Q1’s financial results were largely below expectations, it was Tesla’s disclosure that it would accelerate the launch of more affordable vehicles, countering reports earlier in the quarter that the company would scrap these plans, that gave shares a lift back in April of this year.
The debut and release of a cheaper EV is what many analysts and industry watchers believe will spur the next leg higher of EV sales — even Musk had said this before.
A new pillar of vehicle growth for Tesla would be welcome, following sales that haven’t kept up with the skyrocket pace Tesla was accustomed to. In the 2nd quarter, Tesla delivered 443,956 vehicles globally in the second quarter, topping the 439,302 Bloomberg consensus estimate, but down nearly 5% from a year ago. Q2’s delivery total was however a significant improvement from the 386,810 vehicles delivered in Q1, a quarter that had many deeply concerned demand for Tesla’s vehicles was in free-fall.
“We believe the Tesla demand story has made a shift for the positive after a rough last 6-9 months with stronger than expected 2Q deliveries earlier this month marking a major “turning point” in the Tesla bull case story looking ahead into 2H24/2025,” Ives said.
One area of surprise in Tesla’s second quarter production and delivery report was a disclosure that it deployed 9.4 GWh (gigawatt hours) of battery energy storage, its highest quarterly amount ever, and more than double the amount of battery storage the company deployed in the first quarter.
Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas dubbed Tesla’s Q2 energy deployment storage figure a “show stealer,” noting the 9.4 GWh deployed was double the firm’s forecast.
“We believe investors will begin to pay more attention to Tesla Energy which we value at $36 per Tesla share ($130bn) as the business uniquely positioned to benefit from investment in the US electric grid accelerated by the AI boom,” Jonas wrote in a note to clients last week.
Morgan Stanley has a $310 price target on Tesla.
Expect Musk and Tesla executives to discuss the energy business in more detail, with of course more color expected on future product plans — and perhaps Musk’s thoughts on the presidential election — Tuesday after the bell.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering the auto industry. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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Footnotes:
- https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-wins-tesla-shareholder-battle-to-keep-his-record-breaking-pay-211135704.html
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/teslas-energy-business-is-growing–and-it-could-be-companys-next-big-earnings-driver-100040150.html
- https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1812883378703925625
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-robotaxis-wall-street-weighs-in-on-elon-musks-latest-gambit-181643531.html
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-planning-to-build-affordable-27000-ev-at-giga-berlin-181922250.html
- https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-vehicle-production-deliveries-and-date-financial-results-webcast-second-quarter-2024