Scalper1 News
Electric automaker Tesla ( TSLA ) got a price-target increase from Evercore ISI on Thursday, as analyst George Galliers defended the automaker’s ambitious production targets. Tesla sparked debate when it said in its Q1 earnings report last week that its was moving up its goal of manufacturing 500,000 cars a year by two years, to 2018. Galliers acknowledged that this will be a tough task, given that the company made only 51,000 vehicles last year, but he said it’s not impossible. “Tesla’s proposed production ramp is aggressive, and many have suggested that it is without precedence,” he wrote in his research note, raising Tesla’s price target to 320 from 310. “However, while we are not aware of any developed-world manufacturer who has seen such an aggressive ramp since inception, certain Chinese OEMs’ (original equipment manufacturers’) production growth is not that dissimilar to what Tesla is looking to achieve.” Galliers added that Ford ( F ) had built as many vehicles in year one of some product launches, such as the Ford Focus and the F-150. Some of the skepticism has come from Tesla’s troubled launch of the Model X SUV, but Galliers, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, dismissed the comparison. “Building cars is not like playing tennis,” he wrote. “No OEM is only as good as its last match/product launch.” Despite this vote of confidence, Tesla stock was down a fraction in early trading on the stock market today , near 208. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News