July 21 - Tesla (TSLA, Financial) is back in the spotlight as Deutsche Bank ramps up its bullish outlook ahead of the EV maker's Q2 earnings report, with analyst Edison Yu betting big on the company's long-awaited budget car and autonomous ambitions.
Yu reaffirmed a Buy rating and raised his price target to $345, citing growing confidence in Tesla's execution on multiple fronts. A sub-$30,000 compact EV, dubbed “Model Q” by Yu, is expected to debut in Q4 and could be a key delivery driver into year-end.
Tesla will report second-quarter on July 23. Yu is predicting $22.2 billion in revenue and a better automotive gross margin of 14 percent instead of 12.5 percent in Q1 earlier. That lags Street revenue forecasts, but indicates greater operating effectiveness.
The analyst also believes that Tesla will increase its production in China to six-seater Model Y Long which was introduced recently and she forecasts full year deliveries as 1.58 million units which is slightly lower than the consensus.
In the meantime, the autonomous drive of Tesla is becoming popular. It opened a robotaxi pilot in Austin that is already in operation, and Yu predicts that within a year, it will have 1,000 vehicles in the largest U.S. cities, starting the new leg of growth in addition to the regular EV sales.
