Would you buy a Tesla? It looks like the pioneer has become a hunted one. With the idea of producing sustainable electric cars, the company became known worldwide. But since then a lot of competitors have joined the electric car market. Could the 3rd quarter also be ended positively?

Tesla misses expectations In the 3rd quarter, the company achieved an adjusted earnings per share of 0.66 US$, after 1.05 US$ in the previous year. Analysts had expected 0.73 US$. The revenue for the quarter was 23.35 billion US$, compared to 21.45 billion US$ in the previous year. Analysts had expected 24.14 billion US$.

Tesla will continue to reduce production costs „While production costs in our new factories are still higher than in our established factories, in the third quarter we made the necessary upgrades to further reduce the unit cost,“ said the company.

Further investments in billions planned For the year 2023, the company expects investment spending of more than 9 billion US$. Analysts expect 8.51 billion US$. For the years 2024 and 2025, the electric car manufacturer plans to invest between 7 and 9 billion US$. Analysts had expected more.

Analysts‘ price targets differ widely Conclusion: As you can see from the chart above, Tesla has recovered slightly despite mixed quarterly figures. The share price of the car manufacturer is moving in an upward trend despite strong fluctuations. As controversial as Tesla co-founder Elon Musk is, the price targets of the analysts are also very different. 21 of 48 analysts recommend buying, 21 recommend holding and 7 recommend selling. And now hold on:

The lowest analyst price target is a staggering 53 US$ – a massive downside potential of -80%. The average analyst price target is 240 US$ and the highest analyst price target is 380 US$. I have rarely seen such a wide price target range. In addition, based on the profit estimate for 2024, Tesla is already quite expensive with a P/E ratio of around 55. Conclusion: I would not buy either the stock or the car from Tesla.