It's been an interesting year for Tesla
Tesla reported its delivery figures for the last year on Saturday. In all, it was a pretty good year: Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles, well above the best estimates of some analysts, but just shy of the 500,000 vehicles that CEO Elon Musk set as the company's target and 0.9% short of a production goal during a year wrought with abnormalities isn't bad at all, a sentiment that Musk seemed to share.
"So proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone! At the start of Tesla, I thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance of surviving at all," Musk said on Twitter
One area Tesla did exceed projections, however, was on Wall Street. In the span of a year, Tesla's stock exploded almost 700%, jumping from the high $80's to the $700's. Tesla's 2020 surge is a curious phenomenon that took many by surprise. Some analysts have even revised price targets to match the company's new projections, such as Morgan Stanley's
"Tesla's business model can unlock recurring mobility services revenue faster and more profitable than the competition," Jonas said.
Tesla maintains its share of detractors, though, even with a year-long bull run that still appears to be going strong. Some analysts still maintain low price targets, such as Exane BNP Paribas analyst Stuart Pearson, who downgraded Tesla on Tuesday, citing concerns of over-optimism of the company's future by its investors.
"Never before have the hopes and dreams of entire industries been so concentrated into one stock," said Pearson. "Tesla's strategy is to bet the farm that it can nearly triple its [battery electric] market share while fending off the tech-titans in the race to autonomy. Neither are credible in our view."
Exane BNP Paribas is joined by other firms such as JP Morgan
"Tesla shares are in our view and by virtually every conventional metric not only overvalued but dramatically so," JP Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman commented at the time.
- https://www.reuters.com/article/tesla-deliveries/tesla-2020-deliveries-beat-estimates-but-fall-just-short-of-musks-target-idUSKBN2970EV
- https://www.pws.io//jp-morgan-warns-of-tesla-overvaluation-ahead-of-sp-500-inclusion
- https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-stock-is-a-sell-because-investors-are-too-optimistic-51609864249
- https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/21/01/19029167/tesla-gets-street-high-810-price-target-from-morgan-stanley