Tesla's (TSLA) Q2 Beat 'Across the Board', Baird's Kallo Comments
Baird analyst Ben Kallo reiterated an Outperform rating and $275 price target on Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) following Q2 results.
Kallo commented, "TSLA beat estimates across the board and continued to show gross margin improvement. Although Q3 will have lower deliveries sequentially due to TSLA's production line reconfiguration and international shipments, TSLA provided a positive expectation of exiting 2015 at a 100k unit annualized delivery rate. With several significant catalysts ahead, including gigafactory milestones and the introduction of the Model X, TSLA remains our top pick for 2H. We would be buyers at current levels."
On Q3 delivers, the analyst notes the company guided to ~7,800 deliveries in Q3, which was lower than thier estimate of 9,000, and expects R&D to increase ~20% and SG&A to increase ~15% sequentially. Kallo still expects a profit in the quarter. "We now estimate Q3 EPS of $0.01 vs. our previous estimate of $0.21, and have raised our Q4 EPS estimate to $0.65 to reflect higher Q4 deliveries," he said.
The firm trimmed FY 2014 EPS from $0.95 to $0.90 and raised FY 2015 EPS from $2.27 to $2.36. The firm increased 2015/2016 revenue estimates to $5.5B/$9.4B from $4.8B/$8.2B.
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Shares of Tesla Motors closed at $223.30 yesterday.