Tesla
should have no problem reporting higher earnings than Wall Street expects when it discloses its results on Tuesday evening, but that might not be enough to lift the stock.
According to FactSet, the consensus call on Wall Street is that the electric-vehicle company will turn in second-quarter earnings per share of 61 cents from sales of $24.5 billion. A year ago, Tesla reported 91 cents of EPS and sales of $24.9 billion.
Lower sales volume and prices are behind the anticipated decline. Tesla delivered about 444,000 vehicles in the second quarter at an average realized price of $42,500. A year ago, the company shipped about 466,000 vehicles at an average price of about $44,000.
Still, the estimate for EPS of 61 cents looks easy for Tesla to beat. The consensus earnings number is mainly based on expectations that Tesla would deliver only about 420,000 vehicles, making it somewhat out of date. Wall Street’s earnings forecasts tend not to change much between when the delivery numbers are disclosed and when earnings are released.
What is more, Tesla sold much more battery storage than anyone expected. Tesla deployed 9.4 gigawatt hours of battery storage in the quarter—a record. The prior high for storage deployment was 4.1 gigawatt hours in the first quarter of 2024. The 9.4 gigawatt hours represent roughly enough electricity to power 10,000 American homes for a year.
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
Tesla stock reflects a lot of that better news. Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was up more than 20% for the month. It will take more than just solid quarterly numbers to boost shares.
Investors likely want to hear CEO Elon Musk reiterate that Tesla can increase its sales volume in 2024. Tesla delivered about 1.8 million cars in 2023. It delivered about 831,000 vehicles in the first half of 2024, down about 7% year over year. Tesla needs to pick up the pace to beat the 2023 figure.
“We could see management…
..