Tesla Stock Jumped Today -- Is It a Buy After Q1 Earnings?
Tesla's stock rose 4.8% ahead of its Q1 earnings report, despite being down 44% year-to-date. The company reported adjusted earnings of $0.27 per share on $19.34 billion in sales, missing analyst estimates of $0.39 and $21.1 billion, respectively. Auto revenue fell 20% year-over-year, and overall sales dropped 9%. While the market reacted positively to potential trade-war relief, analysts suggest holding off on buying Tesla stock due to high valuations and ongoing challenges, unless the upcoming robotaxi service launch significantly boosts performance.
Tesla (TSLA 4.71%) stock gained ground today in the lead-up to its first-quarter earnings results, which were published after the market closed. The electric vehicle (EV) leader's share price ended the day up 4.8% amid a 2.5% jump for the S&P 500 and a 2.7% gain for the Nasdaq Composite.
Tesla stock jumped along with the broader market today after Bloomberg reported that some manner of trade-war relief could be on the near horizon. According to the outlet, U.S. Treasury Scott Bessent said at a conference today that he anticipated some manner of de-escalation of the trade war between the U.S. and China. Bessent said that negotiations between the two countries on tariffs had not started yet, but the potential for some favorable trade policy developments to emerge helped power big gains for stocks and essentially reversed the impact of bearish trading yesterday. Investors piled back into Tesla stock ahead of its Q1 report, but shares are still down 44% year to date at today's market close.
Is Tesla stock a buy after its Q1 report?
In the Q1 report it published this afternoon, Tesla posted non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $0.27 on sales of $19.34 billion. Meanwhile, the average Wall Street analyst estimate had targeted per-share earnings of $0.39 on revenue of $21.1 billion. The EV company's auto revenue sank 20% year over year, and overall sales were down 9% in the period.
Despite missing the average analyst estimates for sales and earnings by wide margins, the size of the misses is partially due to some early analyst projections not being updated. Investors expected a bad quarter heading into the report, and shares are down only modestly in after-hours trading as of this writing.
But while the top-and-bottom-line misses don't appear to be having a big impact due to already being largely factored in the company's valuation, Tesla's Q1 report hasn't delivered much indication that things will improve in the near term. With the stock still trading at very high sales and earnings multiples even as revenue is taking a big hit and big challenges remain on the horizon, I'd recommend holding off on the stock unless you think that the projected launch of its robotaxi service this year will be a significant performance driver.