Wall Street Resets Tesla Stock Price Target After Earnings

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares were in focus on Wednesday after Baird cut its price target on the automaker to $522 from $538, while keeping an Outperform rating.

Tesla has also been drawing attention from other brokers as investors debate how much near-term growth is already priced in.

Baird said its view on Tesla was unchanged, but it described the company’s latest earnings call as more centered on projects than earlier quarters. The firm linked that shift to CEO Elon Musk’s focus on Tesla’s pipeline and the coming SpaceX initial public offering. Baird said Tesla remains a long-term holding and expects new projects to help restore growth.

Tesla has also been making moves on operations and technology. The company reported first-quarter revenue of $22.4 billion and earnings of 41 cents a share, both ahead of forecasts, while automotive gross margin excluding credits improved to 19.2%.

Tesla has also said it plans to add 1,000 jobs at its German plant and buy an AI hardware company for as much as $2 billion in stock. The shares were seen as sensitive to SpaceX IPO speculation and broader analyst debate.