Tesla Stock Crashes Even As It Beat Earnings

Share prices in Tesla sank nearly 10% on Thursday afternoon, even after the company reported earnings that beat market expectations.

The reason for the crash? Because Tesla didn’t beat analyst expectations for the right reasons, according to the Wall Street Journal. Instead of beating expectations due to better-than-expected cost reductions, Tesla’s beat was due to something far more intangible.

Tesla’s “other” income was largely behind the electric vehicle manufacturer’s beat, and at a non-operating level to boot. Share prices didn’t sink immediately after the figures were released. Instead, they began their sharp dropoff shortly after the company’s earnings call—an earnings call where CEO Elon Musk failed to reiterate his previously stated goal of Tesla producing 2 million vehicles this year. Disappointingly for Tesla’s investors, Musk cited the company’s official target of 1.8 million cars.

Musk also didn’t sugarcoat the possibility that demand for EVs could weaken, resulting in another round of price decreases and the potential for missing its targeted H2 revenues.

Also missing from the earnings call was a bold Musk singing the praises of its imminent AI-inspired self-driving tech.

Tesla stock is still up from $108ish per share at the beginning of the year into the $262 range today, but today’s loss, even on stellar earnings, could be proof that shareholders have propped Tesla’s stock up on lofty expectations rather than actual performance.

Tesla’s share price is now even with where it was heading into July. It is, however, $8 per share lower than this time last year.

Tesla announced earlier this month that it was engaged in discussions with India over constructing an EV factor there with a capacity to produce half a million electric vehicles per year. The stock price rose nearly $20 per share since that announcement before falling on Thursday.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com