Tesla’s shares went up more than 10% on Wednesday. This happened after CEO Elon Musk said the company plans to start making new electric cars that are cheaper by early 2025.
Musk said this during Tesla’s earnings call on Tuesday. The call happened after the company reported not-so-good numbers for the first three months of the year. Revenue dropped 9% compared to last year, which is the biggest fall in revenue since 2012.
Before, Tesla thought they would start making these new cars in the second half of 2025. But they haven’t given any details about what these new cars will be like. Usually, Tesla shows off designs of new cars years before they start making them.
In the first quarter of this year, Tesla made 45 cents per share in earnings after some adjustments. They made $21.3 billion in revenue. This fell short of what experts were expecting. Experts thought they would make 51 cents per share in earnings and have $22.15 billion in sales.
Revenue dropped from $23.3 billion last year and from $25.17 billion in the previous three months.
Analysts from Bank of America said on Wednesday that Tesla’s results for the first quarter and what its leaders said “addressed key concerns” and made the company’s growth story exciting again. They upgraded Tesla’s stock from “neutral” to “buy” and kept their price target at $220.
They also said they were hopeful about Tesla’s future. They think Tesla showed it has a positive outlook for its business as it gets ready to launch new car models and license its driver assistance system.
“In the near term, it looks like the news about Tesla is getting more positive,” the analysts wrote.
But UBS analysts on Tuesday didn’t change their thoughts much. They still have a “neutral” rating for Tesla’s stock, but they lowered their price target to $147 from $160. They said they’re not so sure about what Tesla is saying.
“More and more, Tesla seems to be focused on self-driving cars. While they are making progress, we’re not sure how well they’ll do in the short term,” they wrote. “We don’t see much growth for the cars they already sell, and we don’t know much about these new cars they’re talking about.”
