Tesla received another vote of confidence from Wall Street firm Piper Sandler. Analyst Alexander Potter reiterated his “Overweight” rating on Tesla stock, keeping his price target at $295 per share.
In his latest note, Potter explained that he expects Tesla to deliver 507,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter. If achieved, that would put Tesla’s total deliveries for 2023 at around 1.83 million units.
“Overweight-rated TSLA will be announcing Q4 deliveries early next week (probably on January 2nd). We are currently expecting the company to deliver 507k vehicles in the quarter, implying a full-year total of 1.83M units. After considering the latest intra-quarter data, we think our estimate appears doable (though admittedly, our forecast is perhaps on the high end of a believable range),” Potter wrote.
The analyst believes Tesla has a good chance of hitting these targets, even if the estimate ends up being slightly optimistic. Q4 would still be a record quarter for the automaker, with annualized production exceeding 2 million vehicles per year.
Previous delivery totals for 2023 were 422,875 vehicles in Q1, 466,140 in Q2, and 435,059 in Q3. To reach its goal of 1.8 million deliveries for the full year, Tesla needs about 476,000 deliveries in the fourth quarter.
Potter is optimistic about Tesla’s margin profile as well. He noted that vehicle pricing has been stable this quarter, so margins should improve from Q3 thanks to better fixed cost leverage, analyst plans to revisit his margin estimates after Tesla announces Q4 deliveries.
The recent launch of the updated Model 3 highland in China and strong Model Y sales globally should help Tesla achieve a record quarter to close out the year. Piper Sandler believes the company is executing well operationally, giving it confidence in the long-term growth story.
Tesla faces some demand concerns heading into 2024, but its production capacity continues ramping higher. Bulls see upside to $295, while any material weakness could shake out more speculative holders.