Barrons – Tesla Stock Rises as New Cybercab Details Emerge
Editors note: pure unadulterated malarky! Showing that employees of Tesla have absolutely no credence. This time the claim is that the robotaxi, which is just vapor-car, will have only half the parts of existing Teslas and will therefore be much cheaper.
See the Tweet by the Tesla engineer:
See original article by Al Root at Barrons
Tesla stock rose again Thursday, powering ahead after closing the previous session at a 52-week high, as investors weighed details about the coming “Cybercab.”
The stock was up 2.8% at $367.86, while the S&P 500 was unchanged and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2%.
One thing that could help shares on Thursday is Tesla’s purpose-built robotaxi which it expects to start selling in 2026. Tesla has been showing off its Cybercab since its unveiling in October. Wednesday, a Tesla engineer said that the Cybercab would have about half the parts of a Model 3. That means far lower costs to produce the vehicle.
Tesla plans to launch a self-driving robotaxi service in late 2025 before Cybercabs are sold using existing models running Tesla’s highest-level driver assistance software. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives calls the self-driving business a trillion-dollar opportunity for Tesla.
Lower costs are positive, but the stock isn’t getting a bump yet. Shares of the electric vehicle maker closed at a new 52-week high on Wednesday, shrugging off concerns about deliveries and pay for CEO Elon Musk. Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney wrote Wednesday that he doesn’t think Tesla deliveries will grow in 2024 compared with 2023.
On Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, management expressed their belief that deliveries would grow year over year, implying that at least 515,000 cars would be sold in the fourth quarter. Delaney, however, sees the number closer to 510,000 units based on his checks of regional sales data.
He rates shares Hold and has a $250 price target for the stock. Guggenheim analyst Ronald Jewsikow, who rates shares Sell and has a $$175 price target for the stock, wrote Thursday that he sees only 491,000 units delivered. “Nothing we are seeing in the data supports 500,000-plus deliveries in Q4,” he said in a report.
Investors would like growth, but the bigger issue is how 2025 will turn out. Tesla is targeting 20% to 30% growth, with a new lower-priced model launched early in the year helping. That implies 2025 deliveries of about 2.3 million cars. Wall Street currently projects 2.1 million deliveries, according to FactSet.
There is also the issue of CEO Elon Musk’s pay. Monday, Delaware Chancery Court judge Kathaleen McCormick again ruled to void Musk’s 2018 pay package, which awarded him some 300 million incentive-laden stock options.
Wall Street appears to believe the decision is more of a nuisance for Tesla, which plans to appeal, and that Musk will get his money one way or another.
“Expect Tesla to appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas earlier in the week. “There may be a range of other options; Tesla could propose a new pay package for shareholder approval but would likely be far more expensive to Tesla given the stock is trading at 15 times above the exercise price of the current option package.”
He rates shares Buy and has a $310 price target for the stock.
That is below where shares trade, but Tesla stock has been on a tear, rising about $106, or 42%, from the Nov. 5 election through Wednesday.
See original article by Al Root at Barrons
