The extravagant pick-up has been announced for a long time, but will not come in 2022 either.
(Photo: Reuters)
new York A record profit of $5.5 billion. A jump in sales of 71 percent. And an extremely optimistic CEO Elon Musk (“2021 was fantastic”). The annual figures of the electric car pioneer Tesla presented on Wednesday actually offered enough material for positive stock market stories. But investors reacted harshly on Thursday.
Minus 11.5 percent: That’s how low Tesla shares were at the close of the New York stock exchange. The sale is sensitive. The Tesla course fell more than $ 100 and was last at $ 829. There is little to suggest that the losses in Friday trading will be made up again.
What many investors see critically: Tesla announced that it would not launch any new models this year – not even the much-anticipated Cybertruck – but would prioritize deliveries. Musk also announced that the consequences of the corona pandemic, in particular the ongoing supply chain difficulties in the wake of the chip crisis, would continue to concern the company in 2022.
In the analyst camp, the annual figures caused less turbulence than on the stock exchange. According to Bloomberg data, not a single analyst changed their buy or sell target. 46 percent of Tesla analysts still recommend buying the share. This number is below the average value of 58 percent buy recommendations in the leading index S&P.
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Alliance Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi has traditionally belonged to the “bears”, the skeptics. In his latest analyst report, he criticizes the lack of work on a Model 2 – a VW Golf-sized Tesla priced at $25,000.
Analyst: “Continued issues with valuation”
“Elon Musk’s much-anticipated product update was a bit of a disappointment,” wrote Sacconaghi. “Musk admitted that Tesla is struggling to make the Cybertruck affordable.” Musk’s statement that he is not working on a $25,000 car should also be interpreted as “that such an offer will be available in 2024/2025 at the earliest”. . “We continue to have issues with Tesla’s valuation.” The price target remained unchanged at $300.
Morgan Stanley’s price target at the other end of the scale also remained fixed: $1,300. Tesla is growing sales 30 to 50 percent while generating $10 billion in free cash flow, so it’s profitable. “Look up stocks of comparable companies yourself: who else can do it?” asked analyst Adam Jones rhetorically. And gave the answer himself: apart from Tesla, he couldn’t find any other comparable company.
Jones is worried about the start of the factory in Grünheide near Berlin: Musk did not give a start date for this, preferring to talk about the imminent start of production in the second new factory in Austin, Texas.
The Morgen-Stanley analysts warned that “investors should be prepared that the political entanglements surrounding Tesla’s German factory could possibly be much stronger than is currently known.” The fact is: Tesla is still waiting for the final approval by the State government in Potsdam, the local exams are dragging on.
Nevertheless, Jones can draw a positive conclusion from the situation from an investor’s point of view: “The message for the 2022 financial year is that the company will continue to be limited in supply, not in demand.”
More: Tesla’s numbers are not a good sign for the German premium manufacturers.